Everything to know about Election Day in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut

NEW YORK (WABC) — Election Day is Tuesday and while there are no presidential, governor or mayoral races on the ballot, many local races are taking place — including the New York City Council.

There are also multiple mayoral races in Westchester and Long Island and Suffolk County will elect a new county executive.

Also in New York there are two statewide ballot measures — one for debt limits for small city school districts and another for sewage projects.

In New Jersey, every seat in both houses of the Legislature is up for grabs and there are multiple mayoral races in Connecticut to know about.

New York elections

New York voters will decide of a variety of races and ballot questions in general elections held across the state Tuesday.

At stake are a range of offices including the New York City Council, state Supreme Court, as well as mayors and county executives from throughout the state. Elections for federal and statewide offices will be held next year.

One notable race has already been decided.

In the New York City Council race for District 9, criminal justice reform activist Yusef Salaam is running unopposed. Salaam was one of five men convicted and later exonerated in the “Central Park Jogger” rape case. He defeated two other candidates in the June 27 primary. He will replace Kristin Richardson Jordan, who declined to run for reelection. Terms are normally for four years, but because of a quirk in the city charter, the City Council races in 2021 and 2023 year are for two-year terms only. The election to four-year terms will resume in 2025.

Also on the ballot is the district attorney’s race in Queens.

Elsewhere in the state, voters in Glen Cove, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Rome, Utica and Yonkers will elect mayors. In Erie, Monroe, Oneida, Onondaga and Suffolk counties, voters will elect county executives.

Two statewide ballot measures will be put to voters on Tuesday. Proposal 1 would remove the debt limit placed on small city school districts under the state Constitution. Proposal 2 would extend an exclusion from the debt limit for sewage projects.

Polls are open on Election Day from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. You can find more about the city elections and check your ballet on the NYC votes website.

How can I check my voter registration status in New York?

Voters can check their registration status at the Board of Elections website.

New Jersey elections

Every seat in the New Jersey Legislature is up for grabs in Tuesday’s general election, but with solid Democratic majorities in both chambers, party control of the body is not expected to change hands.

Democrats have a 25-15 advantage in the state Senate and a 46-34 lead in the General Assembly.

Among the notable contests are the races in Legislative Districts 3 and 4 in southern New Jersey.

In District 3, which covers parts of Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties in the southwest, Republicans won the Senate seat and both Assembly seats by narrow margins in 2021. This year, state Sen. Edward Durr is running for reelection against Democrat John Burzichelli. For the Assembly seats, Republican Bethanne McCarthy Patrick is the lone incumbent in the race. The other Republican is Thomas Tedesco. The Democratic challengers are Heather Simmons and Dave Bailey.

District 4, which includes parts of Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester counties, features open-seat races for Senate and Assembly. The candidates for Senate are Democrat Paul Moriarty, Republican Christopher Del Borrello and third-party nominee Giuseppe Costanzo. The candidates for Assembly are Democrats Dan Hutchison and Cody Miller, Republicans Matthew Walker and Amanda Esposito and third-party hopeful Maureen Dukes Penrose.

The election for New Jersey governor will be held in 2025.

In-Person Voting takes place on Election Day, November 7, from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Go to Vote.NJ.Gov for your polling place, listed on the Polling Locations page.

How can I check my voter registration status in New Jersey?

Voters can check their registration status at the Division of Elections website.

Connecticut elections

Connecticut voters throughout the state will elect mayors in Tuesday’s off-year general election, with one notable race taking place in the shadow of a complicated legal drama.

A state judge on Wednesday ordered a redo of the Sept. 12 Democratic primary in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city. In that contest, incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim defeated challenger John Gomes by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast. The Gomes campaign later sued the city, demanding a new primary after obtaining evidence of possible illegal ballot box stuffing days before the original primary. The date for the new primary has not been set, but the general election on Tuesday will proceed as planned.

The candidates in Tuesday’s mayoral election in Bridgeport are Ganim; Gomes, who filed to run as an independent after losing the primary; Republican David Herz; and independent Lamond Daniels. The Associated Press will tabulate vote results of the Tuesday election but will not declare a winner until the legal challenges have been resolved.

Ganim is seeking an eighth term as mayor. He previously served from 1991 to 2003 before spending seven years in federal prison for corruption and extortion charges stemming from his time in office. Voters returned him to the job in 2015 and 2019. Gomes served in Ganim’s second administration as the city’s acting chief administrative officer until he was demoted in 2016 and later as an assistant chief administrative officer until his termination in July 2022. Gomes has suggested publicly that his ouster was in retaliation for being rumored as a possible mayoral hopeful. Ganim previously faced a primary challenge in his reelection bid in 2019, when he narrowly defeated state Sen. Marilyn Moore by 270 votes. That result was also challenged in the courts, but a judge ultimately upheld the victory.

In the town of Derby, located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of New Haven, incumbent Mayor Richard Dziekan is running as an independent for a fourth term after losing the Republican primary to alderman Gino DiGiovanni Jr., who was charged by federal prosecutors in August with illegally entering the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. DiGiovanni, who was elected alderman 10 months after the attack, has acknowledged being at the Capitol that day but has denied any wrongdoing.

The Democratic nominee is former alderman Joe DiMartino. In 2021, Dziekan narrowly won reelection over DiMartino by a 48-vote margin. Republican Donald Trump outperformed Democrat Hillary Clinton in Derby in 2016 – 52% to 45% – despite losing statewide by almost 14 percentage points. Joe Biden won back Derby for Democrats in the 2020 general election with 51% of the vote.

Other notable mayoral races will be held in Hartford and New Haven. Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven are Democratic strongholds. Biden carried all three cities in the 2020 presidential election with vote margins of at least 60 percentage points.

Polls in Connecticut are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Click here for more information on the elections.

How can I check my voter registration status in Connecticut?

Connecticut voters can check their registration status through the website of the Office of the Secretary of State.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

ALSO READ | Here’s what you need to know to vote in New York, New Jersey in 2023 election

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