New York, NY – With six days until the election, New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay S. Jacobs today hosted a press call highlighting strong enthusiasm among Democratic voters. Early voting data shows that Democrats are substantially leading Republicans across the state, while also outpacing Republicans in absentee ballot returns.

Chairman Jacobs highlighted these data points, while shedding light on Lee Zeldin and the NY GOP’s failed attempts to subvert democracy by attempting to throw out absentee ballots.

“We are not seeing signs of a so-called ‘red wave’ right now,” said New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay S. Jacobs. “In fact, Democrats are showing strong signs of enthusiasm heading into this election. That is because Governor Kathy Hochul has focused on delivering results, bringing jobs to our state, lowering costs for families and businesses, and keeping New Yorkers safe.”

A recording of the press call can be found HERE.

See below figures and a rush transcript of today’s press conference with New York State Democratic Committee Chairman Jay S. Jacobs can be found below:

Chairman Jay Jacobs:

So, I'm going to go over what we're seeing in terms of early voting and absentee votes. And the purpose of this call really, I think, is to give you actual facts that we're gathering on the ground. Not all of them are in at the same time, and they don't come from one centralized source, so we have to collect this information from our various County Boards of Elections and the City Board of Elections. We're accumulating the information and we're gonna give you the best picture we have possible. I think what the picture does show is that this Republican spin that we've been getting from their camp for the past week or so, really has not been borne out by the facts we're seeing with actual votes coming in, both in the early vote and in the absentee vote.

That's just in terms of party registration and who's voting right now. This concept that voter enthusiasm is much greater on the Republican side, we're not seeing that. That's not what you see in the early vote numbers that have come in, or with the absentee voters. So I'm gonna give you some of the data, and we'll take it as it comes. I want to make it very clear, I don't see in these numbers a red wave, in fact, quite the contrary.

But, you know, we're going to wait until Election Day to declare the outcome. What I'm just saying is that right now, things are looking very good and we are working very hard. We've got a robust field program throughout the state and particularly in the city. And we're going to continue doing the job we have to do to pull out every vote that we can for Kathy Hochul and our entire team down the ballot and that's what we're doing. But right now, here's where we stand, and I thought you should have some of these numbers in terms of early vote, when it's broken down by party statewide.

Democrats are outperforming Republicans in early vote 61% to 22%. For voters that are unaffiliated or registered as either Conservative or Working Families Party, there are not any trends that stand out or anything that would cause us to be of particular interest.

Based on the first weekend data that we’ve gathered, Democrats are substantially leading Republicans in New York City: In Manhattan, 81% - 7%; In Queens, 71% - 15%; In Brooklyn, 80% - 10%, and in the Bronx, 82% - 9%. And in Staten Island, not surprisingly, it’s 39% - 44%, which is not surprising, given its Republican bent.

    Democrats are also leading in the suburbs: In Nassau, we lead 43% - 39%.

    Even in Zeldin’s backyard in Suffolk County, Democrats are leading 43% - 36%.

    In Westchester, we lead 63% - 20%.

    Upstate in Albany County, it’s 61% - 18%;

    In Onondaga, it’s 50% - 26%, we lead 53-25% in Monroe.

    And in Buffalo, which is the governor's home county, 57% to 25%.

    Statewide, a total of early votes cast through yesterday is 485,838. From New York City, 171,777.

So New York City makes up right now a little over 35% of the early vote that has come in, which is consistent with what we see at the end on Election Day. Typically, New York City is at about 32%, somewhere in that range of the total vote in the state, so that's consistent. On the absentee ballot front, let me tell you that the statewide Democrats continue to help outpace Republicans by a roughly 3:1 ratio. I should say, statewide, it's 62% Democratic and 23% Republican.

We have, as of yesterday, I believe 226,786 ballots. There are a lot of ballots, in fact more than that number of ballots are still outstanding and we are doing everything we can to make sure those voters cast their ballots. Of that, 226,000,140,556 are Democrat, or 62% as I said, and 51,163 are Republican.

Again you see the same thing in Manhattan at an 84 to 6% margin, Queens 80 to 10%, Brooklyn 86 to 7%. Bronx 94% to 4%, and actually in Staten Island, absentees are better for Democrats 62 to 24%.

In the suburbs, Nassau County 52% to 31%. Suffolk is 48% to 30%. Westchester 62% to 20%.

And upstate, again, similar numbers to what we saw in early voting. Albany 64% to 15%, Monroe 58% to 23%, Onondaga 52% to 26% and as well as the Governor's hometown of Buffalo in Erie County 62% to 23%.

The gender breakdown so you know, is 60/40 women to men. Typically, we see in New York State 53 to 47. So right now, women are voting at a higher number.

So, you know, that just gives you a sense of the numbers. And it's not to indicate to you that I believe that's the outcome of the race or that anything's decided. It's just to simply give you the actual facts of what is happening in real time as best as we possibly can to counter this narrative that the Republican camp is doing everything it can to try to sell that they're closing in here.

So, again, a lot more work has to be done. We are continuing to do our job. This red wave that I'm hearing about we haven't seen. Of course there'll be a lot more votes cast on election day. And we're going to do everything we can between now and election day, as I said before, to bring in every possible vote that we can. So, democratic enthusiasm in spite of what you've heard, is strong. That's evident by absentee ballots and early voting.

And I think this is because Kathy Hochul has done a great job and people are seeing the job that she's done. And she is bringing jobs to our state, lowering costs for families and businesses, and she's keeping New York safe. And I think that people understand that she's got a real plan to do that, rather than just some campaign rhetoric. So on that note, let me invite you to give me any questions that you might have, that I might be able to answer.