New York State 2014 Elections

New York State Board of Elections is still not showing all districts to have reported in, 15,018 out of 15,056. However, at this point, it's unlikely they'll update the count so the numbers used are the ones listed there currently.

With all the opposition to the SAFE Act and Common Core, why did Cuomo win?

As per NYS Board of Elections, there are currently 10,827,434 registered voters, out of a population of 19,651,127 (2013 estimate by US Census Bureau). In the 2012 presidential election, 6,976,373 people voted, 2,490,496 being Republican. In the 2008 presidential election, 7,557,716 voted, 2,752,771 being Republican. In the 2004 presidential election, 7,276,847 voted, 2,962,567 being Republican. In all presidential elections since 1960, other than 1996 when 1,933,492 people voted Republican, Republican vote has been an average of 2 to 3 million.

Cuomo won with 1,951,247 votes. If in the last 4 presidential elections, the Republican presidential candidate received more votes than that, what happened?

The answer is very simple; nobody voted. In this election, there was a total of only 3,717,366 votes, a little over 50% of the average votes cast in presidential elections. Not only that, but in New York City, the voter turn out this year, 976,467, was even worse than last year's mayoral election where only 1,087,710 people voted out of an average of 2.5 million who vote in presidential election.

While many people online commented that at their poll site upstate there was a massive voter turnout, when all is said and done, only half of the regular voters voted. In a city of 19.6M people, out of 10.8M registered voters, out of an average of 7M active voters, only 3.7M people voted.

Why did Cuomo win? Because, whether because of "My vote doesn't count" or "The Republican candidate is not perfect" or complacency or just plain laziness, people didn't vote.

The saddest part is that NYC Republicans, after last year's elections where less than 50% of regular voters bothered to vote, haven't learned their lesson and even less people showed up to vote this year.

The question you should ask yourself is, if all Republicans would register and vote, is NY really a blue state, or is it a red state after all.

The Great Kosher Restaurant Magazine Scavenger Hunt is On!

Guest post by Bracha Komarov

Whether you’re a kosher restaurant “foodie” or you just like to go out to eat once in a while, The Great Kosher Restaurant Magazine Scavenger hunt has fun for everyone. The magazine advertises over 200 top kosher restaurants worldwide, their menus and other pertinent information. Elan Kornblum, also known as “The Restaurant Guy,” first published the magazine in 2004. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, a scavenger hunt has been going on which gives teams of family and friends chances to try new dishes while advertising on Facebook about the great restaurants in the magazine. Now in its third and final week of the hunt, each week there are 30-40 “challenges” that teams must try to accomplish. Some of the challenges were as simple as taking a selfie in front of a GKRM restaurant, while others were taking a picture of video trying dishes in certain restaurants. Some challenges took lots of guts – singing menu items in opera voice, singing happy birthday with a store manager, and even asking a non-GKRM restaurant own why he isn’t in the magazine. With 30+ teams competing, there’s a lot of competition going on. You can check out the website to see what it’s all about and you can still join a team or create your own for the last few, fun days. Visit https://www.facebook.com/gkrmscavengerhunt for more about the hunt and http://www.greatkosherrestaurants.com/ for more about the magazine and to order your must-have copy!

The Great Kosher Restaurants Scavenger Hunt