More than 445K voters head to polls in hotly contested NYC primary election despite 100-degree temps

More than 445,000 New York City voters flooded the polls Tuesday despite punishing heat — as a crowded field of mayoral candidates duked it out for the Democratic nomination.Some 446,487 New Yorkers had cast their ballots as of 6 p.m.— three hours before polls closed — with the total turnout coming to a whopping 876,472 when including mail-in and early voting tallies, the city Board of Election said.An influx of 120,000 votes flowed in just between 3 p.m.

and 6 p.m., the BOE numbers showed, with many more expected to come out after work hours — putting the total on pace to meet 2021’s roughly a million ballots.Election workers in some cases were armed only with paper fans – and no air conditioning — to meet the throng of voters as temperatures outside reached nearly 100 degrees in the record-breaking hottest day of the year.“What’s one day sweating if it’s gonna help people?” said Queens voter Dhyan Rajami, who cited high rents as his most important issue — one that has taken center stage in the crowded Democratic mayoral primary.“I feel like it [voting] had to be done.I care about getting people the resources they need and it’s going to be hot the rest of the summer,” said Rajami, a supporter of Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.Another voter at air conditioner-less Russell Sage High School in Forest Hills made her voice heard despite suffering heat-related health issues earlier in the day.“It’s absolutely horrible, I had an asthma attack on the way to work,” Jada, 48, told The Post.

“But all day long I’ve been thinking about voting.” At the Taylor Wythe Community Center polling site in Brooklyn, staffers and voters languished without AC and little water — as the indoor temperature clocked in at 99 degrees in the afternoon.“I just turned 75, I shouldn’t even be out in this kind of heat,” a worker, who did not want to be named, said.“We’ve been here since 5 a.m.

It’s cooler outside than it is in here.”...