At the polls (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Initial New York City primary election results are in for City Council, District Attorney, and other races on the ballot in this off-year, low-turnout election.

Among the top headlines of the primary are the apparent wins by Yusef Salaam in the open Democratic primary for Harlem's 9th City Council District and Susan Zhuang in the open Democratic primary for the new 43rd City Council District in South Brooklyn; and the lead by challenger Chris Banks in the 42nd City Council District Democratic primary over incumbent Council Member Charles Barron.

The entire 51-seat City Council is again up for election this year given the decennial Census and redistricting process, just two years after the last set of contests when most Council seats turned over due to term limits.

Now, in 49 of the 51 seats an incumbent is seeking reelection — the exceptions being the 9th and 43rd districts. Many incumbents either have nominal or no competition, whether in the primary, the general, or both. But, there were dozens of primary contests, including several competitive races where incumbents faced stiff challenges and the two open seats with robust primaries — including both a Democratic and Republican primary in the new 43rd. (There will be somewhere around ten potentially competitive general election races set to unfold between now and November.)

Meanwhile, both Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark were on the ballot and faced spirited Democratic primary challenges (Katz from her right, Clark from her left), but both are set to win their nominations handily.

As is virtually always the case in New York City, most of the primary election action was on the Democratic side, though there were a handful of Republican primaries and the GOP has been somewhat ascendent in recent years in certain parts of the city, with hopes to hold and add to 2021 gains in the City Council this year. There are currently 45 Democrats and 6 Republicans in the Council, though several conservative Democrats are often more aligned with their GOP colleagues.

There were no primaries at all on Staten Island.

As expected, turnout is very low across the city, though some City Council districts saw far stronger voter participation than others.

Along with City Council and District Attorney primaries, there were also district leader, civil court, judicial delegate, and other positions on the ballot.

Not all results are in yet: some absentee ballots are still arriving, and the New York City Board of Elections will tabulate ranked-choice voting results where applicable beginning July 5.

In the two years since the current class of Council members was seated, districts have been redrawn to accommodate an increase in the city’s population and a series of more specific demographic shifts. Some districts saw few changes and others saw drastic ones, while an entirely new “Asian opportunity” district (Council District 43) was created in South Brooklyn as part of the response to the new population data.

That and Council District 9, based in Harlem, are the only two seats without incumbents seeking reelection — Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan dropped out of the District 9 race as she faced three prominent challengers in the Democratic primary, including Salaam, the apparent victor, and two sitting Assembly members, Inez Dickens and Al Taylor.

Though all 51 Council seats are up for election this year, there are only 24 primary races. While there are 50 incumbents seeking reelection this year, after redistricting two are now running the same district, the new 47th Council District in Brooklyn. There, Democratic Council Member Justin Brannan and Republican Council Member Ari Kagan are now set for what will be a bruising general election battle after Brannan was unchallenged in the primary and Kagan won his by a wide margin.

The City Council party primaries with more than two candidates all use ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference up to five. This is only the second time that the new voting method is being put to use after it was introduced for the 2021 citywide election. It only comes into play in deciding the result if there are more than two candidates and if no candidate wins more than 50% of first-place votes in the initial tally — in that case, an “instant runoff” occurs where some voters’ second choices (and perhaps third and beyond) begin to matter and a cycle of elimination unfolds.

Here is where the District Attorney and City Council primary races stand based on Board of Elections reporting as of 11 p.m. Tuesday night:

Bronx District Attorney - Democratic
Incumbent Democratic DA Darcel Clark is ahead of challenger Tess Cohen, 73%-27%.

Queens District Attorney - Democratic
Incumbent Democratic DA Melinda Katz is ahead of her two challengers with about 71% of the vote.

City Council

District 1 - Manhattan - Democratic
City Council Member Christopher Marté is winning with about 63% of the vote over several challengers; Susan Lee is in second with about 30%. 

District 2 - Manhattan - Democratic
City Council Member Carlina Rivera is winning with about 60% of the vote against challenger Allie Ryan, who has about 39%.

District 9 - Manhattan - Democratic
Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan dropped out of the race but not before her name would be certain to appear on the primary ballot.

Yusef Salaam is winning with about 50% of the vote, followed by Assemblymember Inez Dickens with 25%, Assemblymember Al Taylor with 14.5%, and Richardson Jordan with about 9.5%. The race could go to a ranked-choice instant runoff if Salaam's percentage of first-place votes slips to 50% or under. That will not be known until all eligible ballots are tallied.

District 10 - Manhattan - Democratic
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa is winning with about 85% of the vote.

District 12 - The Bronx - Democratic
Council Member Kevin Riley is winning with about 82% of the vote.

District 13 - The Bronx
Democratic
Council Member Marjorie Velázquez is winning with 66% of the vote over three challengers.

Republican
Kristy Marmorato and George Havranek are in a tight race for the GOP nomination. 

District 14 - The Bronx - Democratic
Council Member Pierina Sanchez is winning with about 76% of the vote.

District 19 - Queens - Democratic
Tony Avella, Christopher Bae, and Paul Graziano are in a tight race for the Democratic nomination.

Republican City Council Member Vickie Palladino did not face a primary challenge and now awaits the Democratic nominee, in what could be a potential rematch of 2021 with Avella, the former Council member and state senator.

District 20 - Queens - Republican
Yu-Ching James Pai leads with about 57% of the vote and appears set to win the Republican nomination.

Democratic Council Member Sandra Ung did not face a primary challenger. 

District 22 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Tiffany Cabán is winning with about 86% of the vote.

District 23 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Linda Lee is winning with about 63% of the vote over Steve Behar's 29% and Rubaiya Rahman's 7%. 

District 25 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Shekar Krishnan is winning with about 64% of the vote over two challengers.

District 26 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Julie Won is winning with about 61% over Hailie Kim's 38%. 

District 29 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Lynn Schulman is winning with about 54% of the vote over Ethan Felder's 35% and Sukhjinder Singh's 11%.

District 34 - Brooklyn - Democratic
Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez is winning with more than 81% of the vote.

District 41 - Brooklyn - Democratic
Council Member Darlene Mealy is winning with about 61.5% over Isis McIntosh Green's 29.5% and two other challengers.

District 42 - Brooklyn - Democratic
Chris Banks is winning with about 50.5% over Council Member Charles Barron's 43% and Jamilah Rose's 5%.

District 43 - Brooklyn
Democratic
Susan Zhuang is winning with 59% over Wai-Yee Chan's 31% and Stanley Ng's 9.5%.

Republican
Vito LaBella and Ying Tan are in a close race for the GOP nomination. 

District 44 - Brooklyn - Republican
Council Member Kalman Yeger, unchallenged in the Democratic primary, is in a close race for the Republican nomination with Heshy Tischler.

District 47 - Brooklyn - Republican
Council Member Ari Kagan is winning with about 75% of the vote over two opponents.

Council Member Justin Brannan, a Democrat who represents the old District 43, saw his political base in Bay Ridge redrawn into the new District 47, where he is seeking reelection without facing a primary challenger. Kagan and Brannan will now face off in what will be among the most competitive general election contests in the city.

District 48 - Brooklyn - Republican
Council Member Inna Vernikov is winning with about 71% of the vote.