How Brick Underground readers are voting in this presidential election
Last week, we asked you to take our survey and let us know who you're voting for, how you chose your candidate, and where you live, to get a sense of what matters to New Yorkers across the five boroughs and beyond. The results are in—here's what we learned.
Manhattan isn't as blue as we thought
Who are you voting for?
To be fair, the city as a whole still skews dramatically to the left, with over three-quarters of the responders to our survey saying they'll vote Democratic. But while Politico has dubbed Staten Island the city's "last Republican bastion," our Trump-supporting readers hail mainly from Manhattan.
Almost half of them are Manhattanites, in fact. The next largest Republican-voting cohort lives in Brooklyn. Given the perception that Donald Trump resonates particularly with low-income whites, it's interesting that at least among Brick readers, the majority of his fans live in the boroughs with the highest cost of living.
New Yorkers are decisive
When did you decide how you'd vote?
Eleventh-hour revelations—be they a "new" cache of emails (later deemed not actually new or surprising) or a surreptitious recording of "locker room talk"—didn't alter most of our reader's opinions: Almost 90 percent said they decided how they would vote months ago.
New Yorkers' reasons for voting are complex—but have little to do with likeability
Why are you voting for your candidate of choice?
A mere 0.48 percent of responders chose "I like my candidate's personality" as the primary reason behind their selection, which seems to support all the contentions that Trump and Hillary Clinton are the least popular presidential candidates ever. Or perhaps this just indicates that New Yorkers are issues-oriented; over a quarter said they made their choice based on the candidate's platform.
A little over 6 percent answered that they're doing a protest vote, typically thought of as a vote for a third party or write-in candidate, intended to express a dissent from the major parties. But in the case of our survey, many readers seem to consider a vote for the Republican and Democratic candidates to be a form of protest—perhaps against Clinton or Trump themselves.
Several respondents were motivated to vote against Trump rather than for Clinton: One wrote, "I'd vote for Mickey Mouse over Trump!" Two others who plan to vote Clinton cited, "Lesser of two evils" as their reason. And a Jill Stein supporter explained, "I know Hillary Clinton will win NY so I don't need to sully myself by voting for her."
Clinton still dominates across most boroughs—but not in Staten Island or the burbs
Which borough do you live in?
Liberal Manhattanites can rest easy that their borough is still a dark blue—and so are three others: 79 percent of Manhattanites, 76 percent of Brooklynites, 74 percent of Queens residents, and 61 percent of respondents from the Bronx are voting Democratic.
In Staten Island, meanwhile? No one who participated in our poll from there is planning to vote Clinton—but take that with a grain of salt, as we had very few from that borough. And it seems that the suburbs are comparatively red: Only one of the responders who said they live in Nassau County is voting for Clinton.
Thanks to all who participated in our poll–and before you vote for real tomorrow, make sure you know where to go.
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