Last Call for Drivers: Blakeman Country Races the 9 PM Bell

The clock is ticking across the State of New A. At 8:35 PM, polls stay open until 9:00 PM, and New A's board shows no votes counted yet in the governor's race between Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul and Republican Bruce Blakeman, the Long Island Executive.

At the OP Gas Station in West Long Island, drivers topping off after the commute said the race comes down to one thing: the congestion pricing toll into Man A. "I pay emeralds every time I cross into the city just to get to work," said one Soundview villager filling up a minecart. "Blakeman's one of us. He knows what that toll costs a family." Long Island is Blakeman's home turf, and his campaign spent the final hours urging commuters to vote on the way home.

Blakeman's villager self, working a line near his home base, kept it simple: "If you drive, if you pay that toll, you've got until nine. Get in there." His running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, has pitched the ticket as the drivers' and taxpayers' choice.

The incumbent goes into the final minutes with the polling edge. Final surveys gave Hochul double-digit leads among likely voters, including Siena at 54–40. But Blakeman led independents in two of three final polls and runs best upstate, where 72,000 votes sit off the city map. Hochul and running mate Adrienne Adams, the first all-woman major-party ticket, are counting on Flatbush, Downtown New BK and Man A, where most of New A's voters live.

Turnout has already been heavy: 690,526 villagers voted early over nine days, up 59.6% from 2022, per unofficial Board of Elections figures. Who that surge helps is the question of the night.

When the bell rings at nine, watch Mill Bergen: car country reports early and leans hard toward Blakeman, but few people live there. The big Democratic boroughs come later, so the early board may not tell the whole story either way.