Heatwave hits NYC on June primary Election Day 2025

Polls opened on Tuesday, June 24, for the 2025 citywide June primary elections as a heatwave hit the city this Election Day. Temperatures reached about 100 degrees outside, matching the heat of a tightly-contested primary.

- By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff Additional reporting from Tandy Lau, Amsterdam News staff

For early voting, organizers on the ground observed that voters were definitely engaged with their local elections this year and showed up to the polls.

"It's my perspective that early voting has increased over last year, specifically because of all the attention with the mayoral candidates and all the races that are happening," said Joan Alexander Bakiriddin, newly appointed president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Brooklyn Branch. "Because of the urgency of now, because of what's happening at the federal level, folks are more in tune, paying attention — they want to make sure that their vote is already counted."

Bakiriddin said that in addition to educating voters about candidates and ranked choice voting (RCV), it was also important to remind people about the general election in November. "We're also telling people that if you're not a Republican or a Democrat, then you won't be voting now. We'll see you in November or October for early voting," she said.