It’s Primary day in NY. Here’s what you need to know.

The early summer sizzle is baking New York, but on Tuesday, the politics is lit.

It's primary day, with contests open for congressional, state legislative, judicial and party elections.

The marquee contest is the Democratic matchup between incumbent Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Westchester County Executive George Latimer in the 16th Congressional District. The candidates’ positions on Israel’s war in Gaza emerged early as an issue in the race, with Bowman calling Israel’s actions tantamount to genocide and Latimer voicing his staunch support for the Jewish state.

But the head-to-head has also featured record ad spending, with notable support from Republican donors for Latimer, and endorsements from high-profile surrogates. These include U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont's U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (for Bowman) and former presidential candidate, Secretary of State and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (for Latimer).

Statewide, 102,883 voters cast ballots during the nine days of early voting, according to data from state elections officials.

Westchester accounted for over a fifth of those early votes – with 21,130 votes cast, Latimer’s home county brought in more than any other county in the state, including each of the five boroughs. Adding the Bronx brings the count up to just shy of 30,000, but many of those were cast outside the 16th District, which spans southern Westchester County and part of the northern Bronx.

The next highest early voting turnout statewide is in Queens, with some 14,280 votes, where Democrats have a boroughwide race for Surrogate Court judge. That race pits county-backed Cassandra Johnson against independent Democrat Wendy Li. There are also a handful of competitive state legislative primaries in Queens, like in Assembly District 35, in East Elmhurst, where former state Senator Hiram Monserrate is trying to make a political comeback. After his expulsion from the Senate in 2010, Monserrate later went to jail for corruption charges in connection with his time on the City Council. He now faces Larinda Hooks, a longtime community organizer.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday at 901 sites across Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, and they’ll stay open until 9 p.m.. There are no primary contests in Staten Island. New York has closed primaries, so voters must be registered in a given party to participate in its election. You can find your poll site and view a sample ballot here.

Here’s what else to watch in Tuesday’s primary election:

Those other congressional primaries

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose 14th Congressional District in the eastern Bronx and Queens, and freshman Rep. Dan Goldman, whose 10th Congressional District includes lower Manhattan and much of the Brooklyn waterfront, both face primary challengers.

Businessman Martin Dolan is running to unseat Ocasio-Cortez, while Goldman faces business analyst Bruno Grandsard and Evan Hutchison, a pro-Palestinian political organizer.

The incumbents bring far more resources and name recognition to the races, but we’ll still be monitoring the margins. Both seats are in decidedly Democratic districts, so whoever wins those primaries is the likely winner of the seat in November.

On the eastern end of Long Island, Democrats Nancy Goroff, a retired chemistry professor, and former CNN analyst and historian John Avlon are running to win the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District. Goroff was the party’s nominee for the seat in 2020, but Avlon, who identifies as a moderate Democrat, has the backing of state Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs. The winner will face incumbent Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican, in November.

Key state legislative contests

Assembly primaries are taking place in four of the five boroughs. Some races are to fill open seats for retiring members, like in District 35 in Queens where Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubrey’s departure has kicked off a competitive race between Monserrate and Hooks. Similarly, there are races to watch in Brooklyn, with the departure of Helene Weinstein, and in Manhattan with Daniel O’Donnell.

City Councilmember Kalman Yeger and Adam Dweck, a first-time candidate, are running in Weinstein’s former district which includes parts of Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, East Flatbush and Flatlands.

In Manhattan, five candidates are vying for O’Donnell’s upper Manhattan seat: Micah C. Lasher, former policy director for Gov. Kathy Hochul; Carmen R. Quinones, head of the Frederick Douglass Houses’ tenant group; Eli Northrup, a public defender backed by the left-leaning Working Families Party; Melissa Rosenberg, a vice president at major lobbying firm and Jack Kellner, a doctor who left his job at the city health department to go to Fordham Law.

Queens Surrogate court

The winner of this primary will go on to hold a top judicial spot in Queens for the next 14 years. For more than a decade, the Surrogate court judge has been closely connected to the Democratic party organization in Queens since the judge can appoint the public administrator and assign referees to manage the estates of people who die without wills. The current law firm who has been most closely associated with that work is Sweeny, Reich and Bolz. The firm also has close ties to the Queens Democratic organization. The candidates, Johnson and Li, have been keeping the race out in front of voters with direct mail and social media ads. Johnson is running with two other party-backed judicial candidates. Li is running in the insurgent lane, picking up support for her willingness to challenge the political machine.

Be mindful of misinformation

Ahead of Primary Day, the New York State Board of Elections issued guidance warning that rogue actors were sending unsolicited text messages to voters in certain parts of the state with incorrect poll site information. State officials warned voters to only trust information about poll site location and hours from the New York State, New York City or local county Board of Elections office.

Any voters who experience problems at their poll site, including voter intimidation, can report concerns to the NY Attorney General’s office at their election hotline (866) 390-2992. Complaints can also be submitted to the NY AG’s office online.

The Justice Department plans to monitor poll sites in Queens for compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. Voters in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties can also submit complaints about potential voting rights violations to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York at (718) 254-7000.

Voters can also alert [email protected] about issues that need more reporting at a poll site.

And expect the unexpected

Primary contests tend to drive lower turnout, which can open the door to the unexpected. One race we have an eye on is the Working Families party primary in the 17th Congressional District between Mondaire Jones, a Democratic former congressman who lost WFP campaign support when he endorsed Latimer against Bowman, and Anthony Frascone, who LoHud described as a “mystery candidate.” November 2023 enrollment data from the State Board of Elections shows just 1,674 voters registered in the Working Families Party in the district. Unofficial data from the state BOE as of June 18 shows some 246 new WFP voters in this district. If they all turn out, that’s a block of votes that could make or break the nomination for one of the candidates.