01 Voting Logistics
Where and when to vote. Early voting is already underway — it opened today.
Election Day — Tue, Nov 3
- Poll site
- 3300 Kings Highway
(entrance at 3340) - Hours
- 6:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Early Voting — Oct 24 → Nov 1
- Site
- 3415 Quentin Road
- Hours
- Vary by day — roughly 9 AM–5 PM on some days, 10 AM–8 PM on others. Check the BOE schedule before going.
02 The 5 Ballot Proposals
All five are citywide Charter amendments from Mayor Mamdani's Commission on Government Efficiency (chaired by Patrick Gaspard), released July 2026. The common thread — especially in Props 1, 3, and 4 — is shifting decision power away from City Council review and toward the executive/agencies. It's the same centralization-vs-oversight fight as the 2025 housing ballot measures.
Proposal 1 — Speed Up Revocable Consents for Public Space
Simplifies the process to use public space for things like ramps, planters, and sidewalk cafes — removing mandatory hearings and removing Council disapproval of sidewalk cafes, while maintaining community and Council input.
Analysis
- What's actually changing: revocable consents (the permits for private use of public sidewalks/streets) currently require hearings and, for sidewalk cafes, a Council disapproval window. This removes both.
- Power shift: one of the three proposals (with 3 and 4) that reduce the Council's formal role in land-use-adjacent approvals.
- Context: outdoor dining has been a live political fight since the pandemic-era program; "cutting red tape on outdoor dining" is how Gothamist framed this measure.
Proposal 2 — Reduce Contractor Paperwork; Procurement Policy Board Meetings
Authorizes the Procurement Policy Board (PPB) to simplify the contractor questionnaire, requires quarterly PPB meetings, and removes the mandatory hearing for the client services report.
Analysis
- Least controversial of the five: this is mostly procurement plumbing — vendor paperwork, meeting cadence, report hearings.
- The one substantive bit: letting the Mayor delegate certain contract approvals concentrates a bit more discretion in the executive. The Comptroller's office (which audits contracts) is the stakeholder that historically pushes back on this kind of change.
Proposal 3 — Fast-Track Street Safety Projects, Property Disposition, Office Leasing
Simplifies review of street safety projects to shorten construction timelines, fast-tracks disposition of unused City property with City Planning Commission approval, and expedites leasing office space for the City workforce.
Analysis
- Street safety piece: this is the "bike lanes" part of the press framing. Faster approvals for things like protected lanes and pedestrian projects — but less process for opponents of a given project to slow it down.
- Property disposition: currently the Council approves sales of unused city property; this would let the City Planning Commission (mayoral-majority appointees) sign off instead.
- Power shift: the clearest Council-to-executive transfer of the five. Three separate Council checkpoints removed in one proposal.
Proposal 4 — Centralize Building Permitting; Move Waterfront Permits to DOB
Analysis
- Mostly administrative: consolidating permitting under DOB instead of splitting waterfront permits across agencies. Fewer cooks, one counter.
- Worth noting: "additional DOB officials to issue approvals" widens who inside the agency can sign off — speed vs. layer-of-review tradeoff again, but intra-agency rather than Council-related.
Proposal 5 — Set Rainy Day Fund Contribution Targets
Analysis
- Notable opposition: a leading fiscal watchdog is urging a no vote (per Crain's reporting) — the critique being that a methodology "subject to approval in the budget" is a soft target that sounds like fiscal discipline without binding anyone to it.
- Counter-consideration: right now there is no target at all; supporters argue a defined formula is strictly better than ad-hoc deposits.
03 Candidate Races
Party-line abbreviations: D = Democratic, R = Republican, WF = Working Families, C = Conservative. "Vote Affordable" is a ballot line, not a separate candidate.
Governor & Lieutenant Governor
Hochul is the incumbent governor seeking re-election. Adrienne Adams — the former NYC Council Speaker — is her running mate for Lt. Governor.
Blakeman is the Nassau County Executive. The "Vote Affordable" line is an additional ballot line for the same ticket.
State Comptroller
Has held the office since 2007. The Comptroller audits state agencies, manages the state pension fund, and — relevant to Prop 2 — reviews NYC contracts.
Challenger. Worth a Vote411/Ballotpedia lookup for his platform — down-ballot statewide races get almost no press coverage.
Attorney General
AG since 2019, seeking another term. Nationally high-profile office.
Challenger.
U.S. House — NY Congressional District 9
Raised $1.2M this cycle. No Republican filed for the seat, so the general is not competitive. Clarke's F grade from integrityindex.us reflects her campaign funding profile (corporate PAC and similar money); Mike Goldfarb and Joshua Bristol also appear on the ballot listed as Democrats.
State Assembly — District 41
Cross-endorsed: runs on both the Democratic and Conservative lines. Effectively unopposed — the only name in this race.
04 Judicial Races — NYC Bar Ratings
The NYC Bar Association evaluates every judicial candidate and publishes Approved / Not Approved ratings. These general-election ratings were released October 23, 2026. Judicial races are where independent ratings matter most — candidates can't campaign on issues, so the Bar's screening is often the only real signal.
Civil Court Judge, Kings County — countywide (choose 2)
| Candidate | NYC Bar rating |
|---|---|
| Christine Ortiz | Approved |
| Danielle Noel | Approved |
| Celeste Felix | Approved |
| Linda Lo Cascio | Approved |
All four rated Approved — no rating-based reason to prefer any pair over another. Pick on other criteria (bar-association questionnaires, endorsements).
Civil Court Judge, 8th Municipal Court District
| Candidate | NYC Bar rating |
|---|---|
| Abbye Lawrence | Not rated by NYC Bar |
| Susan Liebman | Not Approved |
Supreme Court Justice, 2nd Judicial District — choose 9
| Candidate | NYC Bar rating |
|---|---|
| Lara Jean-Jacques | Approved |
| Robin Waterman | Approved |
| Reginald Mimes | Approved |
| Deepa Patel | Approved |
| Jessica Spain | Not Approved |
Most candidates in this race are cross-endorsed (as is typical for Brooklyn Supreme Court seats, which are effectively decided at the judicial convention). The ballot lets you pick 9; ratings distinguish at least Spain from the rest of the listed field. Full slate and any additional names are on the official sample ballot.
05 Research Toolkit
The systems worth checking for any race, any year — bookmark these.
- integrityindex.us (the candidate site behind politicalintegrity.us)Grades federal candidates on financial integrity — corporate PAC, AIPAC, and crypto money. Covers NY-09 (Clarke: F). Only useful for Congress and statewide federal races.
- The judges site. Screens every judicial candidate and publishes Approved / Not Approved. General-election ratings drop in late October. Also check the Brooklyn Bar Association for candidates the NYC Bar didn't rate.
- Vote411.org — League of Women VotersCandidate questionnaires in their own words. Best source for down-ballot races (Comptroller, AG challengers, judges) that get zero press.
- FollowTheMoney.org + NYS BOE public reportingState-level campaign finance — who's funding the gov / comptroller / AG / Assembly races. (OpenSecrets only covers federal.)
- Neutral race summaries, candidate bios, and ballot-measure trackers. Good first stop to see who else is running statewide.
06 Further Reading on the Proposals
Best explainers on the five Charter amendments, in rough order of accessibility.
- Hell Gate — "Crash Course on NYC's 2026 Ballot Proposals"The most readable rundown; blunt about the power-shift framing.
- Gothamist — ballot proposal coverageFramed as "cut red tape on outdoor dining, bike lanes." Good on the street-safety piece of Prop 3.
- City & State NY — "Understanding the NYC ballot proposals"Insider perspective; useful for who supports and opposes each measure and why.
- CityLand (NYLS)The legal-detail version — full charter text changes and land-use implications.
- Crain's NY BusinessReported the fiscal-watchdog opposition to Prop 5 (rainy day fund).