June 2025 Primary Requires Strategic Choice Ranking from Voters

By Mary Alice Miller
It’s Voting Season! Early Voting for the June 2025 Primary will take place over nine days, starting Saturday, June 14, and ending Sunday, June 22. The Primary will be on Tuesday, June 24.

The New York City Board of Elections Contest List for the Primary Election 2025 for Kings County includes nominations for the Democratic Party, including offices and positions for Mayor, Public Advocate, City Comptroller, Borough President, Member of the City Council, Judge for the Civil Court, and Delegate to the Judicial Convention.

Nominations for the Republican Party in Kings County include City Comptroller, Member of the City Council, State Committee, and County Committee.

Voters should have received two mailers related to voting.
The first is a Voter Guide from the New York City Campaign Finance Board that provides basic information about the candidates for Mayor, Public Advocate, City Comptroller, Brooklyn Borough President, and several City Council races, as well as voter information.
The second mailer is the 2025 Official Voter Information from the New York City Board of Elections. It contains locations for Your Early Voting Poll Site, Your Election Day Poll Site, Your Voting District (Election District/Assembly District), and your Fast Pass QRL code, which can be scanned into your phone.

Read both mailers BEFORE venturing out to vote, and bring them both with you to vote.
Voters can access a Sample Ballot by going to findmypollsite.vote.nyc. Enter your address, click find my site button, then click the View Sample Ballot button.

For instance, a Sample Ballot Based on City Council Member Osse’s District Office located at 1360 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216 will take voters to https://nyc-static.electionhub.com/sampleballots/386777/12/2025P3V1_ELE_DEM_Style_265.pdf.

Voters can also request a sample ballot be emailed to them.
There are eleven (11) Democratic candidates for Mayor: Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Scott M. Stringer, Selma K. Bartholomew, Zellnor Myrie, Adrienne E. Adams, Andrew M. Cuomo, Jessica Ramos, Whitney R. Tilson, Michael Blake, Brad Lander, and Paperboy Love Prince.

Mayor Eric Adams is NOT running in the Democratic Primary. The mayor, who was under federal indictment until he wasn’t, has chosen to run as an independent and will likely appear on the November 2025 Ballot. Voters may choose to include a vote for Mayor Adams as a Write-in Candidate and fill in an oval to rank that write-in choice.

According to polling, former Governor Andrew Cuomo (who resigned after multiple sexual harassment allegations) has a lead over his opponents, with Democratic Socialist Assembly member Zohran Mamdani a strong second. Mamdani maxed out matching funds early, then asked his supporters to donate to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams campaign, giving her a funding boost.

D.R.E.A.M. (Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor) came about when the United Auto Workers Region 9A announced its endorsements of Comptroller Brad Lander, State Senator Jessica Ramos, and Assembly member Zohran Mamdani.

The Working Families Party ranked Mamdani as its first choice, and endorsed three others: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Comptroller Brad Lander, and State Senator Zellnor Myrie.

A whisper campaign among women who want to see New York City elect its first woman mayor and were only going to rank Speaker Adams and Senator Ramos imploded when Ramos endorsed Cuomo last week. Undeterred, Speaker Adams may be their first and/or only choice.
Democratic Public Advocate candidates include incumbent Jumaane D. Williams, Marty Dolan, and Jenifer Rajkumar.

City Comptroller Democratic candidates include Manhattan Borough President Mark D. Levine, Ismael Malave Perez, City Council member Justin Brannan, and State Senator Kevin S. Parker. Brownsville voters may recall that Brannan played a role in defeating former City Council member Alicka Ampry Samuel for fear she was a credible candidate for Council Speaker, a position he coveted.

City Comptroller Republican candidates are Peter Kefalas and Danniel Maio.
Democratic candidates for Brooklyn Borough President are incumbent Antonio Reynoso and Khari O. Edwards.
The candidates for Judge of the Civil Court—County—Kings are Janice Chen, Marisa Arrabito, Susan Liebman, and Janice P. Purvis.
There are several City Council races of interest to central Brooklyn voters.

Members of the City Council, 35th Council District include incumbent Crystal Hudson, Hector Robertson, Kenny Lever, and Dion M. Ashman.
The candidates for the City Council, 36th Council District are incumbent Chi Ajani Osse and Reginald Swiney.

The candidates for the City Council, 41st Council District are incumbent Darlene Mealy, Jammel Thompson, Lawman Lynch, Jamell Henderson, Eli Brown, Clifton A. Hinton, Bianca Cunningham, and Dante Arnwine.
The candidates for the City Council, 46th Council District are incumbent Mercedes Narcisse and Dimple Willabus.
There are also various Democratic candidates for Delegate to Judicial Convention and County committee, and numerous Republican candidates for various State Committee and County Committee positions.

Voters may rank up to five candidates in order of preference, rank any two, three or four, or choose just one. If a candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, they are the winner.
If no candidate earns more than 50% of first-choice votes, then counting will continue in rounds.
Your vote will only count toward your highest-ranked candidate who has not been eliminated. If your top choice candidate gets eliminated, your vote will then count toward your next highest-ranked candidate.

At the end of each round, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated. This process will continue until there are two candidates left. The candidate with the most votes wins.
Some voters find their ballot is not accepted by the scanner by giving multiple candidates the same ranking, called an over-vote. To avoid having their ballot voided, any voter may use the Ballot Marking machine, which does not allow over-votes by default.

No matter who voters choose or how they rank their choices, it is important that voters show up and vote.