New Yorkers are actively voting in congressional elections

Dozens of New Yorkers have been standing at polling places in Manhattan since this morning to cast their ballots in the U.S. midterm elections.

New York elects representatives to the Senate, House of Representatives, local legislatures, and governor on Tuesday. The latter will almost without a doubt be Democrat Cathy Hochul, who has held the post for about a year now after Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal. Democrats are also likely to make it to Congress.

The main difference between the current election and the presidential election two years ago is that then the city was expecting riots, while today it is not. Two years ago, most storefronts, both downtown and in residential neighborhoods, were boarded up with wooden shutters to prevent looting and vandalism. New Yorkers feared that a possible victory for Donald Trump would bring leftist movements, BLM (Black Lives Matter), and anti-fascists to the streets.

Nothing of the sort is happening now, although Republicans are likely to gain control of at least one of the houses of Congress. The situation on the streets and in the precincts today is calm, and no representatives of radical movements – usually recognizable by their uniforms, masks, gas masks, and kneepads and elbow pads – are seen on the streets.