This New York online casino leadership vote article is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Update: At 9:30 p.m., a half hour after polls closed, state Sen. Joseph Addabbo won with 57% of the vote, according to the unofficial election results.
Addabbo received 3,066 votes out of 5,388 cast, with all 154 election districts reporting.
The New York State Board of Elections tallied 29%, or 1,569 electors, in favor of Democratic candidate Japneet Singh.
The final competitor, Alberto Baldeo, listed on the site as Albert, saw 704 votes. His slice of District 15’s primary voters was 13%.
Blank, void, and write-in candidates received the remaining 1% or 49 ballots cast, according to the elections board.
The elections board lists results as unofficial until it certifies them, which is expected to occur within 15 days of this primary.
Earlier on Primary Day
Three candidates vied to represent District 15 in today’s Democratic primary election. Last week, all of them told Hannah Vanbiber of NY Sports Day that they were in favor of New York online casino legalization.
However, one of them, incumbent Sen. Joseph Addabbo, is unmistakably leading the effort to legalize online casino gambling. The chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Racing, Gaming, and Wagering sponsored legislation last year aimed at legalizing online casino gambling and he tells NY Sports Day he plans to do so again in 2023.
Addabbo’s competitors, Alberto Baldeo and Japneet Singh, told Vanbiber they were in favor of mobile casino gambling, but didn’t say how they would lead legalization efforts.
Today, 93,092 enrolled Democrats in the newly redistricted section of New York City were eligible to vote in the primary election.
Addabbo, still listed on his Senate site as residing in Howard Beach, moved in with his mother to remain within the district he represents.
The New York State Board of Elections will provide unofficial election night results after the polls close at 9 p.m., but no results were on the Election Night Reporting Page as of 2 p.m.
Voters Are Confused
In general, Primary Day is already an underattended event.
However, 2022 involved two primaries.
As NPR reports via WSKG‘s Vaughn Golden:
A judge ordered state Senate and congressional primaries to be postponed after the state’s highest court tossed out redistricting maps drawn by the legislature.
The first primary, on June 28, involved gubernatorial and Assembly races. Baldeo lost a state Assembly race that day.
The second primary is today and it decides congressional and state senate contests.
The City finds half of the 12.3% of eligible voters who casts ballots on June 28 are doing so today.
During Primary Day, Part 2, as The City puts it:
Adding to the confusion are a series of changes from the city Board of Elections that could muddle the process further: Voting sites changed for 86,500 voters between the June and August primaries.
Therefore, all sources advise voters to check their polling locations before heading out.
In the meantime, if frustrated electors don’t think their primary votes matter, they need only look West.
In June, Illinois pro-gambling Rep. Michael J. Zalewski lost in the Democratic primary to Abdelnasser Rashid. Rashid won by 323 votes.
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