If voters in Harlem are feeling some fatigue, it's no wonder.
There was last year's April presidential primary, then a June congressional primary to select the candidate to succeed retiring Congressman Charles Rangel.
In September, there were state legislative primaries, and then the general election in November. This year, there was a special election in February for City Council — and finally, this week's State Senate special election.
The victor, Democrat Brian Benjamin, crushed the competition — with only 4 percent of voters showing up. There are more than 200,000 registered voters in the district, and Benjamin won with just over 7,500 votes.
"How would you know there's an election in May?" said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University, who said New Yorkers already go to the polls in June, September and November in even years and vote in municipal elections every four odd years.
Greer said she was actually surprised more than 8,000 voters bothered to go the polls on Tuesday. "Is it voter apathy, or is voter fatigue? How many times do you really expect people to go to the polls?" she said.
While voter turnout in special elections is traditionally low, when compared to last November’s election, the drop in turnout is stark.
More than 65 percent of voters cast ballots for State Senate in November, with a presidential contest also on the ballot, according to a WNYC Data News Team analysis of the number of total ballots cast compared to the number of registered voters in the district. Even in 2014, a midterm election year, turnout was still 26 percent.
On Long Island, where Democrat Christine Pellegrino picked up an assembly seat in a traditionally Republican district, turnout was 10 percent.
Out of all 50 states, New York ranks 41st for turnout of the voting-eligible population.