By Jill Colvin, Ben Frachtenberg and Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Staff
NEW YORK — Neither of the two men running for New York governor are spending Election Day stumping around New York State for more votes.
Democrat Andrew Cuomo said he would be at his desk Tuesday, doing his job as attorney general, while Republican Carl Paladino said he planned to take a nap.
"People pay me to be the attorney general and I want to make sure the taxpayers get their money’s worth," Cuomo said after voting at Mt. Kisco Presbyterian Church Tuesday morning.
"I'm old school. I work all the time," he said.
Cuomo had a commanding 25-point lead over Paladino heading into Election Day, according to the latest Siena College Poll. The poll showed an even larger gap in New York City, with Cuomo leading 78 to 15 percent.
But Cuomo told reporters early Tuesday morning that polls are just "guesses," and he urged New Yorkers to come out and vote.
"Forget the polls," Cuomo said in Mt. Kisco, standing alongside his girlfriend, Food Network star Sandra Lee, and his 12-year-old daughter, Michaela, shortly after 10 a.m. "There’s only one poll that counts. That’s what we’re going to find out tonight."
Paladino has also dismissed recent polls and said he was confident Tuesday morning.
"We’re gonna win today," Paladino told reporters after voting at the Salem Lutheran Church in South Buffalo at about 11 a.m. "In the primary I could feel all that energy out there. I know what that feeling meant and I feel it today."
Many voters in South Buffalo said they picked Paladino because Cuomo reminded them of his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who led the state from 1983 to 1994.
"I don’t want Cuomo there. I have visions of his father running through my head," said South Buffalo resident Cheryl Huah, 50. "I don’t want a politician. [Paladino] says what he means."
At Cuomo’s polling station in Mt. Kisco, Democrat Julie Frome, 54, said she was excited to cast her vote along party lines.
"Paladino was out of the question. Absolutely," she said.
But not everyone voting with Cuomo said they were certain about sending their neighbor to the governor’s mansion.
Xavier Lividini, 81, a registered Republican from Mt. Kisco, was still undecided as he waited for his ballot.
"When I get up there, I’ll make up my mind," he said.
