New York City – The city that never sleeps but on election day.

The frontrunner for mayor and the presumed winner in the Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, Bill de Blasio got the confidence of only about 3 percent of all New Yorkers. Not to mention Joe Lhota, the Republican nominee, who’s share of the vote was about one-tenth that amount.

After a year long heavy contested primary season, a total of 700,000 registered voters went to the polls, according to incomplete returns, the NY Times reports. That is about 20 percent of enrolled Democrats and Republicans.

Based on the unofficial turnout results from 98 percent of the city’s 5,059 election districts, about 22 percent of the city’s nearly three million enrolled Democrats voted, up from about 12 percent four years ago and nearly 19 percent in 2005. Republican turnout was even lower: Only about 12 percent, or fewer than 60,000, of the city’s 470,000 enrolled Republicans voted in the mayoral primary this year.

By contrast, the NY Times notes, in the 2001 primaries, the last time there was no mayor seeking re-election, about 850,0000 people voted, including about 30 percent of enrolled Democrats and about 14 percent of enrolled Republicans.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)