Golden Day: NYC sees highest turnout ever for early voting
Golden Day — the last day to register to vote in New York State and the first day of early voting — kicked off this past Saturday with the highest turnout at the polls in New York City history.
Local social justice organizations, such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Brooklyn Branch as one of many making themselves visible, didn’t miss the opportunity to get the vote out in Brownsville. NAACP Brooklyn Branch President L. Joy Williams and Councilmember Darlene Mealy led their on-the-ground efforts. They were joined by sorority and fraternity members, Medgar Evers students, and the New Grassroots Democratic Club.
“This is a historic time,” Mealy said.
Volunteers poured into the basement of Mount Ararat on Howard Avenue, ready to text, phone-bank, and street-canvass in Brownsville to let voters know about the start of early voting and the last day of voter registration. Their goal was to reach at least 30,000 New Yorkers and remind them to get to the polls. After Golden Day on October 26, voter’s ballots will not count toward the general and presidential election on November 5, 2024.
“It’s called Golden Day, and being a part of Sigma Gamma Rho, ‘we are golden’ — our colors are royal-blue and gold, so it speaks to who we are and what we are,” said Alyssa Abernathy-Boston, founder of the Life Equip Group and a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority. “I’m absolutely passionate about giving back and being a part of such a momentous time in history. I would not have it any other way. [B]eing here is me contributing to change.”
Golden Day is a new practice in the city. Assemblymember Robert Carroll introduced the Bill S. 5984-A/A. 6132-A to create a “Golden Day” on the first day of the early voting period so New Yorkers could register to vote and cast their ballots at their polling places on the same day without hassle.
It was introduced in 2023 as a part of a larger legislative package designed to strengthen voting rights and was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul last September. Bills in the package that were passed included protections for absentee ballots counting, forcing “faithless electors” to resign, establishing a deadline for changing location of a polling place, establishing an early voting by mail system, disseminating voter registration information at city jails, training programs for poll workers, and promoting student voter registration and pre-registration.
“It’s a progressive piece of legislation, and last year was the first opportunity to see it at play,” said Assemblymember Latrice Walker, who volunteered her time on Golden Day to help the Brooklyn NAACP text-bank voters throughout the state. “We were standing outside of a poll site and people were walking by and we [would ask], ‘Are you registered to vote?’ We got a number of people who said no, so the immediacy of ‘I can register to vote and vote’ will heighten the chances of a person actually voting, because it’s not like you have to be reminded to come back or something.”
Ariama C. Long photos
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Brooklyn Branch NAACP President L. Joy Williams (left) with first-time voter Elijah Reddick (right) across the street from Weeksville Heritage Center on Oct. 26 -
Long early voting lines at poll site in East Flatbush, Brooklyn -
Brooklyn United (BU) youth band and dancers escort voters to early voting poll site
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Brooklyn NAACP members and volunteers ready to text, phone-bank, and street-canvass in Brownsville to let voters know about start of early voting and last day of voter registration
In an effort to capture the attention of more Black and Brown youth and get them to cast their ballots on Golden Day, Williams and Mealy asked the Brooklyn United (BU) youth band to escort voters to the early voting poll site at Weeksville’s Heritage Center. They played music, marched, danced, strolled, stepped, and promenaded through the streets with volunteers in tow chanting, “Fired up and ready to vote!”
Elijah Reddick, 21, a Brooklyn native who attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School,registered and voted for the first time on Saturday. He said that while he cares about the shortage of jobs and housing among his friends, he was not particularly “inspired” to vote.
“I feel like it’s a duty,” Reddick said. “Like people should vote, but I’m not really inspired to do it.” He was much more excited about walking with the band to the polling place and thought that was a cool experience.
Voter turnout overall has continued to improve.
On Oct. 26, the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) announced that this year’s first day of early voting was the “highest day” ever for turnout. Early voting lines in Brooklyn were down the block at times from when polls opened to when they closed, said line clerks.
As of Tuesday, Oct. 29, early voting check-ins were up to 495,478 throughout the five boroughs (unofficial and cumulative as of close of polls), posted the BOE. The most votes were cast in Brooklyn (150,805), Manhattan (136,206), and Queens (112,350). The fewest were cast in the Bronx (50,830) and Staten Island (45,287).
“It’s kind of like we’re back in an Obama moment, right?” said Abernathy-Boston. “Because when Obama was running it was such a huge response to us, people of color, minorities, feeling like we had someone who identified with us going into this space.”
Early voting ends on Nov. 3. Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
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