By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The few New Yorkers who weighed in voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to cap city pols at two terms, reversing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push to change the law to allow him to serve a third term.
With all precincts reporting, nearly 74 percent of those who voted on the issue chose in favor of limiting city politicians to two four-year terms, versus 26 percent who thought politicians should be allowed to serve three.
Bloomberg said before Election Day that he would vote in favor of returning to a two-term limit, despite aggressively lobbying for the switch to three terms in 2008.
According to preliminary data from the city's Board of Elections, in the end, just a fraction of the city's more than 4 million registered voters chose to weigh in on the question, which was printed on the back of the ballots in very small print.
Only 655,000 people voted "yes" or "no," which is about 16 percent of registered voters, according to the data. That does not include absentee and other late ballots.
That means that four in six of New York City voters who turned up at the polls did not know about the questions or purposefully left them blank.
Many elected officials had voiced fears before Election Day that the Board of Elections hadn't done enough to inform residents about the measures.
Late last week, DNAinfo found that many voters had never heard of the measures, let alone where to find them on their ballots.
"I think we need to alert the public," urged Charter Revision Commission member Anthony Perez Cassino before the vote.
Ron Lauder, the founder of New Yorkers for Term Limits, even launched an ad campaign with the tag line, "Flip over the ballot! Flip off politicians," to get out the word.
As part of its outreach measures, the Board distributed "voter palm cards" at poll sites that highlighted the ballot propositions, spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said.
Poll workers were also instructed to tell voters to flip over their ballots to vote.
Brendan Brown, 44, a fashion sales director from Harlem, praised workers at his site who reminded him about where to find the referendums.
"I didn't know that I had to turn the ballot over but they were very clear about that," he said. "I had thought about the term limits question in particular and voted they should keep them at two."
But not everyone got the message.
"I didn't know at all," said Inwood resident Luis Lithgow, 50, after he cast his vote.
"They should have let me know," he complained.
Nonetheless, those who supported the reversal praised the results.
"The voters have waited two long years to make their voices heard on term limits, and today they delivered a clear answer," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who has long been a critic of the mayor’s push to have the City Council extend the limits so he could run again.
"We've taken a big step towards restoring the public trust broken in 2008," he said.
This was the third time voters have cast ballots in favor of the limits. But unlike last time, the City Council has been barred from making changes that apply to sitting office-holders.
Voters also cast their ballots in favor of a second referendum dealing with seven separate proposals, including decreasing the number of signatures it takes to get on the ballot and other administrative issues.
Voters supported that measure 83 percent to 17 percent, with 14 percent of registered voters weighing in.
Commission Chair Matthew Goldstein praised both votes in a statement released early Wednesday.
