Here’s your guide to the November 2024 election

Are you reading this on your phone, hunched behind the white privacy panels of your voting booth, realizing you’re woefully unprepared to do your civic duty and darken various bubbles? Are you studying before you vote, and realizing your knowledge might have a gap or two? Or are you simply an electoral politics freak who wants to revisit local news?

Whatever your situation, Gothamist has the answers for you. Here’s a roundup of the key races New York voters will decide this November – and our stories on each. We also have resources on how to vote and what you need to know about elections in New York.

This is your guide to…

Ballot initiatives

Question one: This is a statewide anti-discrimination measure. A “yes” result would add language to the equal protection clause in the state constitution seeking, among other things, to enshrine the right to abortion throughout New York. Here’s more on what it would do, and why the word “abortion” won’t appear on your ballot.

That’s the only question applicable statewide. The next five questions are just for New York City voters. They’d amend the city charter, which is the city’s version of a constitution.

Question two: This measure would expand the city sanitation department’s enforcement authority, allowing the department to clean areas currently outside its jurisdiction. It would also empower the department to issue fines to street vendors, which some advocates have warned could lead to aggressive crackdowns.

Question three: Passing this would give the mayor’s office more oversight of the City Council’s lawmaking process, particularly related to how it does its budgeting.

Question four: This one would also give the mayor’s office more oversight of the City Council’s lawmaking process, this one as it regards public safety agencies (like police and firefighters).

Question five: This measure would alter which details the city considers in its capital planning process, which allows it to pay for…