NEW YORK MINUTE: It’s finally here. POLITICO’s team will be giving you New York election results as soon as polls close at 9 p.m. And you can follow every big development across the country — including updates from our crucial New York House races — at the POLITICO live blog. FIELD OF DREAMS: Democratic and Republican operatives insist they’ve learned from their voter turnout mistakes. GOP strategists have touted a stronger early and absentee voter turnout program — methods of casting ballots that have not been embraced by former President Donald Trump in the past. Democrats, meanwhile, believe their door-knocking efforts — a voter-contact push they say dwarfs their 2022 work — will boost their chances in pivotal House races. Whether these labors bear any fruit will be determined today, and New York voters in a half-dozen House races could determine which party controls the closely divided chamber. Republicans are defending five seats won by first-term lawmakers in 2022; Democrats are defending two of their incumbents. The stakes are especially high for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has been leading a coordinated campaign effort meant to aid down-ballot House and state legislative candidates. Hochul, blamed two years ago for disappointing Democratic losses in New York, has backed an effort to build out the party. And Democrats are in a statistical reverie with their numbers: 1.2 million doors knocked, 5 million phone calls, 93 full-time staff and 38 offices all meant to turn out battleground House district voters. Party officials also insist they’ve been able to better coordinate this year with volunteers to not duplicate efforts. “It’s a world of difference for folks on the ground,” said Nate Munson, the deputy coordinated campaign director at the state Democratic Committee. “Their time is spent very efficiently.” Meanwhile, the labor-backed Battleground New York has fêted the registration of 25,000 new voters and has worked to get people of color and those less likely to cast ballots out to the polls. “By targeting these voters, we dramatically expanded the number of people who were touched by human-to-human contact at their door about the Democratic candidates and the stake in this year’s election,” the group wrote in a strategy memo Monday. But Democrats also acknowledge Republicans have made gains with early voting and absentee ballots — closing a gap that has been a disadvantage for the New York GOP. On the Republican side, party officials have praised their aggressive early voting efforts, a push that began a year ago with Rep. Elise Stefanik encouraging Republicans to “bank” their votes. Republicans have organized voters in “safe” House seats — including those held by Stefanik, Reps. Nick Langworthy and Claudia Tenney — to contact battleground district Republicans. GOP officials have said “hundreds of thousands of phone calls” have been placed and that they have also conducted door-knocking efforts. “We’ve never had this kind of sophisticated program before,” said Alex DeGrasse, a Stefanik strategist. New York Republicans have been in the political wilderness: The party does not control any statewide offices and lost power in the state Senate in 2018. That makes the House races pivotal for the state GOP in deep blue New York. Nevertheless, Republicans are optimistic after Hochul’s own election two years ago was closer than expected. “The pendulum has been shifting to the right over the last few years,” former Rep. Lee Zeldin, the party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2022, told Playbook, “and there hasn’t been any sign of the movement to the right stopping.” — Nick Reisman HAPPY TUESDAY: Election Day is here. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin , Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
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