Early voting for the November 5, 2024 General election begins Saturday, October 26; final day Sunday, November 3

Request an Early Mail Ballot - https://vote.nyc/RequestBallot
Everyone is eligible to vote by mail! Request online by October 26.

Find your poll site here
For more information go to the NYC Board of Elections

Contested Candidates and Ballot Proposals

Downtown Independent Democrats proudly recommends voting all Democrat in the General Election. Only the Federal candidates have challengers. Please remember to turn over your ballot to vote on the Ballot Proposals.

Federal

President  / Vice President- Kamala D. Harris / Tim Walz
U.S. Senate - Kirsten E. Gillibrand
U.S. House NY CD-10 - Daniel Goldman

Ballot Proposals (Remember to turn the ballot over)

New York State - Proposal 1: Amendment to Protect Against Unequal Treatment - YES

DID passed a resolution in support of this proposal and has been working diligently to inform the public and advocate in favor of ratification of this NY State Constitution Amendment, which is otherwise known as the NY Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

The state constitution currently only explicitly protects against discrimination based on race or religion. The New York ERA would vastly broaden the scope of those protections to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on a person’s ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and sex, including their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. 

New York City - Proposals 2 - 6

DID Executive Committee reviewed each of the proposals individually and recommends a NO vote on Proposals 3 - 6. Due to lack of consensus, our Executive Committee takes no position on Proposal 2.

The DID Executive Committee shares the deep concerns expressed by many organizations and public officials (see Gothamist), including the League of Women Voters (LWV) and Citizens Union (CU), about the City Charter Proposals 2 - 6. These concerns include the late and short timeline for the Charter Review process which resulted in limited public input, as well as the dramatic shift of power from the City Council to the Mayor that some, if not all, of these proposals would produce.

Citizens Union recommends:

“After voting YES on question 1, New Yorkers should vote NO on all five citywide proposals put forth by the Charter Revision Commission. While several of the proposals have issues, the more alarming concern is the deeply flawed process in which the Commission operated. It worked under a hasty timeline, leaving no room for a thorough charter review or proper public input. Moreover, these proposals don’t require a charter commission process—they could have been handled through legislative or executive action,” said Betsy Gotbaum, executive director of Citizens Union."

The League of Women Voters provides detailed analysis of all the proposals here and this is their statement about Proposals 2 - 6:

"There is an  important and overriding Con for all the proposals: The timing of this Charter Review process was extremely abbreviated.  It was just two months, June and July, with the Charter Review Commission approving the final report on July 25th.  It was  a very short timeline in which to address a broad range of issues.  During the public hearings, only 240 public testimonies were received, many of which had been by invitation.  Only 2,300 public statements were submitted, out of a city population of eight million.  The League of Women Voters of the City of New York has been on record against truncated Charter Review processes in the past, specifically under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  (Letter about  the 2002 Charter Revision process.)

Also, because of constraints to ballot proposals, each proposal is limited in length and does not reflect the complete details behind the individual proposals.  In most of the proposals, there are several topics combined into one proposal.  For voter clarity and understanding, they could have been addressed separately.   Additionally, the proposals, as they will appear on the November ballot, do not present the full impact of the individual proposals."

Uncontested Candidates

State

NY Senate District 27 - Brian Kavanagh
NY Assembly

District 61 - Charles D. Fall
District 65 - Grace Lee
District 66 - Deborah J. Glick

Local

New York City Civil Court NY County (six seats for election; listed in ballot order)

Louis L. Nock
Malaika Scott-McLaughlin
Allison R. Greenfield
Harold E. Bahr
Elizabeth Y. Shamahs
Crystal Villasenor

New York County Civil Court (Your Municipal District is determined by your address)

Municipal District 1 - Ilona B. Coleman
Municipal District 2 - Alice Tam Tien

New York Supreme Court 1st Judicial District (two seats for election)

Cynthia Sharon Kern
Gerald Lebovits

President of the United States

DID endorsed VP Kamala Harris for President

(Photo: VP Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz)

DID unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed VP Kamala Harris for President at our August 1st Special Membership Presidential and NYS Supreme Court Endorsement meeting. The selection of Governor Tim Walz has only added enthusiasm and further raised the joyful, hopeful spirit of our Democratic campaign!