Rebecca Seawright Defends UES State Assembly Seat

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Residents of State Assembly District 76 took to the polls Tuesday to vote for their representatives in the state legislature during this year's midterm election.

Democrat Rebecca Seawright cruised to victory, defeating Reform Party challenger Lou Puliafito according to city Board of Elections results. Seawright captured 96 percent of the vote compared to Puliafito's 3 percent, according to unofficial election night results.

The 76th Assembly District spans the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island neighborhoods. Seawright has represented the area since 2015.

City dwellers packed public schools, apartment lobbies and places of worship to form massive lines as they cast ballots in Tuesday's midterm elections. Reports from many polling sites indicated an unusually high turnout for a non-presidential election.

Lines in some places stretched around the buildings where voting booths were set up, even in neighborhoods with no contested elections. Voters waiting outside PS 163 on the Upper West Side lined a full block between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, a video posted to Twitter shows.

Despite the high turnout, the scene at many poll sites was bleak due to horrible weather and a general sense of dysfunction in how the election was managed. New Yorkers encountered widespread problems with the machines used to record their votes in Tuesday's midterm elections, adding to long waits caused by unusually high turnout. City officials blamed wet ballots on a rainy Election Day for jamming up scanning machines at dozens of poll sites in at least four boroughs.

Lead image: Voting booths and crates of polling station supplies are seen in the Bronx in November 2016. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images