Upper East Siders Report Smooth Election Day Voting

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After a sometimes-chaotic week of early voting, residents of the Upper East Side who cast their votes on Election Day Tuesday have reported a smooth experience thus far.

Kathy Jolowicz said she arrived around 10:30 a.m. at her polling site at P.S. 6 on East 82nd Street and was finished within 10 minutes.

"It was a pleasure. I was greeted, helped, and voted," she wrote in an email.

Resident Carolina Tejo described a "fantastic" experience at her assigned site on East 95th Street and Third Avenue, which was "well-organized, and incredibly speedy."

"Everyone working was helpful and courteous. 10/10," wrote Tejo, who is also a member of Community Board 8.

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Robert F. Wagner Middle School on East 75th Street, which had hourslong lines last week while serving as the city's most overloaded early voting site, was comparatively empty Tuesday afternoon, with no visible line outside.

At a public school polling site on East 91st Street, crowds gathered when the site opened at 6 a.m. but had dissipated by 9 a.m., according to Jane Foss, who worked as a poll watcher there until noon.

Still, there were signs of tension in the neighborhood about how the results of Tuesday's presidential election would be received.

A number of businesses, including upscale retailers on Madison Avenue, had boarded up their windows by Tuesday afternoon — part of a citywide trend amid fears of unrest once results begin to roll in.

On Tuesday, a top NYPD official said that police were prepared to block swaths of Manhattan to drivers and pedestrians to curb potential riots or looting, although he stressed that such measures were unlikely.

"We do not expect them to happen," Terence Monahan, the NYPD's chief of department, said of outbreaks of widespread looting.

How did voting go for you on Tuesday? Email nick.garber@patch.com to share your story.

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Read our Upper East Side voter guide here.