According to the New York City Board of Elections and Decision Desk HQ, about 5.1 million New Yorkers were registered to vote in 2025. Yet only 2,049,631 ballots were cast—just over 40 percent turnout citywide in the NYC 2025 mayoral election.

That means close to three million registered voters didn’t participate. Zohra Mamdani (Democrat) won with 1,036,051 votes, or 50.6 percent. Andrew Cuomo (Forward/Independent Democrat) received 854,995 votes (41.7 percent). Curtis Sliwa (Republican) trailed with 146,137 votes (7.1 percent). Eric Adams (Independent) and Irene Estrada (Other) finished below one percent.

The Scale of Non-Participation

Of the city’s 5.1 million registered voters, about 65 percent are Democrats, 11 percent are Republicans, and roughly 1.1 million are unaffiliated or independent. If half of those independents—around 550,000 people—had turned out and mostly voted for Cuomo, the result would have changed. Adding those votes to his total would have pushed him to about 1.4 million, enough to overtake Mamdani even if Mamdani picked up a small share of those same voters.

The math shows that turnout, not ideology, shaped the outcome. Mamdani’s win rested on a smaller, more engaged bloc, while millions of potential voters across every political stripe stayed home.

The Sliwa Factor

Sliwa’s campaign drew about 7 percent of the total vote, but his presence didn’t affect the final balance. The difference between Mamdani and Cuomo—about 181,000 votes—was greater than Sliwa’s entire total. Even if every one of Sliwa’s voters had backed Cuomo, Mamdani would still have edged out a narrow win.

That makes clear that Sliwa’s decision to stay in or drop out wouldn’t have changed the result. The Republican vote share in New York City simply isn’t large enough to tip a two-way contest dominated by Democrats and independents.

The Mathematics of Apathy

Break the numbers down another way:

• 1 in 5 registered voters chose Mamdani
• 1 in 6 chose Cuomo
• 3 in 5 chose not to vote at all

For a city of more than eight million people, those ratios show that the true winner was apathy. New York’s elections have become contests of who can get a sliver of the population motivated enough to participate—not who can persuade the majority.

Conclusion

The 2025 New York City mayoral race wasn’t a referendum on progressivism or centrism. It was a test of participation, and most voters failed it. Mamdani’s margin came not from a groundswell of support but from the absence of engagement across the electorate.

A city with over five million registered voters saw fewer than half turn out. Mamdani’s victory rests on backing from about one in five registered New Yorkers—a reminder that in New York politics, winning doesn’t always mean the city showed up.

By Sack Head Shaun
Find Shaun at SHR Media and follow on X: @2AgainstTyranny