New York is also electing a mayor. The favorite in the polls is Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim of Indian descent born in Uganda.

Voting starts at 06:00 local time (13:00, Romania time) and ends at 21:00 (Wednesday at 4:00, Romania time).

Lincoln Mitchell, a professor at Columbia University, expects high participation in this "highly contested" election.

For months, polls have shown Zohran Mamdani as the frontrunner, with a lead of between 4.5 and 16 percentage points over his main opponent, former state governor Andrew Cuomo, whom he defeated in the Democratic primary, and now he is running as an independent.