New Yorkers vote early in hopes of ‘really big’ Biden victory

There’s been so much going on it’s just, it’s a privilege to be waiting in a line like this

NEW YORK (AFP) — Wary that polls showing Donald Trump behind could again be wrong, New Yorkers turned out massively Saturday to vote early as they hope to ensure a “really big win” for Joe Biden.

A long line stretched along 34th Street and then onto Seventh Avenue in Trump’s strongly Democratic hometown on Saturday, the first day for early voting in New York, as people calmly waited to enter a specially organized polling station in the cavernous confines of Madison Square Garden arena.

With the normal schedule of concerts and sporting events canceled by the coronavirus pandemic, NBA players were able to persuade authorities — following a series of enormous racial-justice demonstrations — to transform several huge sporting arenas into polling stations.

In this once hard-hit city that has so far managed to fend off a resurgence of COVID-19, voters — all in masks — seemed ready to wait for hours if need be before passing through the metal detectors leading to the voting booths.

Local media reported long lines in front of more than 80 voting sites on Saturday, as New Yorkers flocked to cast ballots even as polls predicted Trump would lose the election — as they did in 2016 when he snagged a surprise win over Hillary Clinton.

“There’s been so much going on it’s just, it’s a privilege to be waiting in a line like this,” Jerad Ashby, 38, a Biden supporter, told AFP. “I think we just have to exercise our rights, and I’m excited to be here.”

“We need someone who is decent — someone who will stand up for everybody and not just for those that agree with him.”

For this respiratory therapist-turned-stay-at-home dad, it doesn’t matter that New York systematically votes Democratic — as it has in every presidential election since 1988 — or that it is not among the battleground states expected to decide the 3 November election.

The important thing, Ashby says, is “to not just get a win but to get a really big win.”

Kenneth Scarlett, who works in marketing, agreed.