Why has turnout in NYC mayor elections been declining for decades?

[Pres Mike]

In 2013, turnout was only 13%! It was 25% in 2017!

The population has been around 8 million since 2000, but most elections haven't had more than 1 million voters since 2009

1993 had 1.8 million people vote.

1965 had 2.5 million people vote!

Elections in the 1950s and 1960s regualrly had 2 million people vote

(For reference, 3 million people voted for President in 2020)

[progressive85]

Maybe there's a general feeling that the mayor has become less important over time so it matters less to vote?  I'm not sure... might also mean that organizationally speaking the campaigns are not as good at motivating people to vote.  and of course that the Democratic primary is viewed as the defacto general election and that the eventual winner of the D primary has a large swath of the electorate that doesn't really care for them very much.

[Senator Incitatus]

I would guess that one factor is growing transience in the population.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I honestly think lots of NYC voters are just getting blackpilled because:

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1407458472875249672

[pikachu]

I agree that turnout is s*** though it’s by design bc of elections being off-off year with the real action often being in the June Democratic primary, but the three higher turnout elections you cited were some of the few since WW2 which were seriously two-party contests. That being said, immediate postwar NYC was prob at its least transient bc of America’s abnormally low immigration in that era, while also having institutions like unions since the city was in its social democratic phase.

(But tbh I don’t see the point of this question unless you’re comparing it to other major cities that have similarly scheduled elections.)

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

increasingly sh*tty mayors.

[Electric Circus]

There hasn't been a competitive mayoral general since 2009.

Off-year elections are especially likely to have low turnout when they aren't competitive.

New York City's foreign-born population has more than doubled since its nadir in 1970s. Many foreign-born residents are citizens, but generally this means that the city has more residents who can't vote, but who will count against turnout figures that use the entire adult resident population as their denominator.

[Mr. Matt]

What was the turnout in 2021? If even lower, could people have thought the ranked choice ballot was too confusing?

Edit: Ranked choice wasn't used in the general, not that it would have been needed anyway.

[Dan the Roman]

The lack of viable Republican candidates not just for Mayor but also for City Council means there is no reason to vote. Republicans are a distinct minority, but the Democratic lean is likely skewed by turnout in the same manner it was in the other direction in, say, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina in 2022. It is very hard to get people motivated for a candidate to win 35% rather than 27%.

It also means the elements of the Democratic coalition who don't like the candidates have no reason to vote either.

[CosmoKramer]

Cause the candidates are horrendous and the elections happen in off years when no one cares about politics.