79% In, Hochul +21.8 Statewide — But New A's City Board Is Still Blank

At 12:15 AM the statewide count sits at 79% reported: Kathy Hochul 60.9%, Bruce Blakeman 39.1%, a 21.8-point margin. The race was called for Hochul at 9:00 PM, and Blakeman conceded at 11:54 PM, saying he had just got off the phone with the Governor.

Here is the catch the big graphics can't hide: almost none of that count has landed on New A's own city board. Man A, New BK, Long Island and New S all still read 0% reported. The only borough in is The BX, at 90%, where BX Homesteads has Hochul up 64.7 — 34 of the borough's 38 votes.

What's still out is most of the city. New BK holds 27,800 votes at a full count, led by Flatbush at 9,400 and Downtown New BK at 7,600. Man A holds 24,900, with Midtown Man A at 6,400. Blakeman's home turf, Long Island, has 8,200 waiting — Soundview 3,000, North Shore 2,200 — and New S has 4,600, mostly South Shore. Another 72,000 votes sit in the rest of the State, off the city map.

Is it close? Not statewide. The margin has narrowed from the earlier blowout numbers, but 21.8 points is no nail-biter, and the call stands. On Long Island, though, drivers who spent the year fighting the congestion toll into Man A are still waiting to see their wards counted at all.

"We drove to the polls, we paid the emeralds, and the board still says zero," one Soundview villager said outside the OP Gas Station in West Long Island. "Count us before you tell us how we voted."

When the city boroughs report, expect Flatbush, Downtown New BK and Man A to run deep blue, while Long Island and New S give Blakeman his best showings of the night — a consolation map, not a comeback.