(l-r) top: Samar Khurshid, David Brand, Soma Syed; middle: Dilip Nath, James Gennaro, Deepti Sharma; bottom: Neeta Jain, Moumita Ahmed

Six candidates running in the special election for City Council District 24 in eastern Queens met for a debate on January 26 hosted by Gotham Gazette, Queens Eagle, and Citizens Union Foundation. The special election to replace Rory Lancman, who stepped down to take a position in the Cuomo administration, is ongoing, with early voting January 23-31 and election day on February

New York City voting (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

In spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic, and in some ways in response to them, 2020 proved to be a historic year for voting in New York City, with 3 million ballots cast in the presidential election in November, including a record-breaking 662,314 absentee ballots after the state eased rules on voting by mail, and unprecedented long lines at early voting poll-sites in the first presidential election with the nine-day period implemented in New York.

Moving into 2021, the