No major voter defections from Shelter Island to NYC

What apparently started as reports from various media about Southold Democrats changing their voter registration from the East End to New York City became an unsubstantiated issue for Shelter Island.

The reports of voters changing their registrations followed money coming from Long Islanders to support the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani, whom polls have consistently shown as the front runner for New York City mayor.

The story spiraled, but there is no indication Shelter Island Democratic candidates are losing voters to that city race.

Instead, Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams, who seeks re-election on the Republican Party ticket, acknowledged that even if Democrats lost a few voters who opted to  transfer their registrations to New York City, the Democrats would have 45% of registered voters on the Island while Republicans and Conservatives together showed a 25% tally of Island registered voters.

She said two weeks ago, there were only 10 new registrations for any of the parties on the Island and no recent defections of voters registering in the city.

Voter registration is still open in New York State, but there hasn’t been any groundswell of defections.

The Board of Elections has been unresponsive to questions about changes in registrations from the Island to New York City.