‘Worst mayor ever!’: de Blasio gets heckled while waiting in line to vote

While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, were waiting in line to vote on Tuesday in their former neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn, a few individuals lobbed some heckles at the unpopular mayor, the New York Post reported.

“Get to work!” shouted a cyclist.

And after that, “You’re the worst mayor ever!” one pedestrian intoned—to borrow The Post‘s verbiage.

The mayor has been infamous for not showing up to work as much as he should at City Hall, often opting for midday strolls all the way across the river in Brooklyn or sweating it out at his favorite gym (at least before the pandemic). Critics from seemingly everywhere on the political spectrum have eviscerated him for dawdling while COVID cases jump again in the city, while his rival, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), handles the brunt of the work in containing the spread.

When the heckling occurred, the mayor was chatting it up with other folks in line. He had been in line for over 40 minutes.

“Everyone else is waiting,” he said. “They’re doing it because they care and they want to make their voices heard.”

“I admire everyone on this line and I’m going to join them,” he added.

Hours-long wait times have plagued polling stations across the city ever since early in-person voting commenced this past weekend. Despite this, over 300,000 city residents have already cast their ballots in these first three days, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In response, Mayor de Blasio on Monday said that the city’s Board of Elections will require more voting machines and poll workers in order to counteract the absurdly long queues. He also mentioned that he would be willing to work with Gov. Cuomo to try and resolve the issues.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.