Hot election: NYC primary will coincide with extreme heat, officials take precautions

It’s not just the candidates who are sweating for votes in New York City’s primary election.

City election officials said Thursday they are taking steps to keep voters and poll workers cool and safe during an anticipated heat wave as early voting winds down this Sunday and Primary Day takes place Tuesday.

Temperatures are forecast to get into the mid-90s in that period, and could even exceed 100 degrees when accounting for humidity, according to the National Weather Service.

“Our top priority is the health and safety of our poll workers, voters and the proper functioning of our poll sites,” Vincent Ignizio, deputy executive director at the city Board of Elections, said in a statement. “While voters generally spend only a few minutes at a polling place, our poll workers serve on the front lines for up to 17 hours.”

“This is fundamentally a facilities and workforce challenge, and we are treating it with the urgency it deserves,” he added.

The board will provide fans and a steady supply of drinking water at poll locations that lack air conditioning, officials said in a release. Election administrators also said they are coordinating with emergency management and utility officials to make sure the power stays on at poll sites.

The city has more than 1,200 voting locations and 35,000 poll workers for the primary election, according to the board. Officials are encouraging registered primary voters to vote early to avoid the worst of the heat on Tuesday. Voters can find their polling locations here; polls will be closed Monday as the board prepares for Primary Day.

The most closely watched contests are the Democratic mayoral and comptroller races. Both are being conducted under ranked-choice voting, where voters can rank multiple candidates in order of preference and whichever candidate gets more than 50% of the votes after successive elimination rounds — if required — wins.

Dominic Ramunni, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said the metro area is in for a potential four-day heat wave from Sunday to Wednesday before temperatures drop from the 90s. He said it will be the region's “first real heat spell of the year."

“You want to stay hydrated, take breaks in the shade as often as possible, listen to your body if you feel overly stressed, overly hot,” Ramunni said. “You want to get inside somewhere with air conditioning, cool back down. It’s good to limit strenuous activity, especially during peak heat in the afternoon, and wear light-colored clothing.”

For voters heading to the polls, he said, “it might not be a bad idea to bring a bottle of water.”