New York, New York – The rain kept coming on Tuesday in New York City, and so did the voters.

TAG24 was live at an NYC polling site in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, where residents were engaged and ready for a change.

The polls have just closed on this monumental Election Day, which determines the mayoral primaries for the city.

Not only will it decide who will move on to the general election for mayor in November, but it will also elect the parties' new nominees for Comptroller, Borough Presidents, several District Attorneys, Public Advocate, and City Council members.

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Thirteen candidates are in the running for the Democratic nomination for mayor with no clear front-runner, while just two Republicans are in the race for their party's nod.

As New York leans heavily Democratic, with registered Democrats currently outnumbering Republicans in the city by about 8:1, the party's winner will all but certainly move on to win the election this fall.

Not only were all eyes on one of the most diverse and closest Democratic fields for mayor in New York's history, but also on the new ranked-choice voting system being tested out in the country's most populous city.

"It was like trying to get a PhD in voting," one voter said of the new ballot.

Another voter told TAG24 there were long lines in the morning at the Manhattan Plaza polling site on West 43rd Street, so she came back in the afternoon for a much breezier process to finally cast her ballot.

As a former poll worker, I'd personally gotten to know my way around the inside of a polling place well, but this time around, it was the voters just outside that I got to learn more from.

Hell's Kitchen residents sounded off on the topics that mattered most to them – and why they still came out in the pouring rain to have their say.

During the past few weeks, the hot-button talking points between mayoral candidates included the city's rising crime, economic recovery from the pandemic, and police reform.

And voters' concerns on Election Day were no different.

"The city is in need of a leader that is looking out for citizens," said local Brandon Brown outside his polling site on Tuesday. "Keeping our safety in mind is key, along with our rights being protected."

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He continued, "[I'm] feeling leadership in this city has lost sight of the people. Supporting a party that will look out for our best social interest is why this vote is important."

New York has seen a steep rise in overall crime during the last year, and is experiencing increased hate crimes along with the worst gun violence numbers in nearly a decade. Current mayor Bill de Blasio will depart after November's election following an eight-year tenure met with widespread discontent over safety concerns and policing.

One longtime Democrat told TAG24 she was so disgruntled with the candidates' various new platforms to defund the police that she planned to vote Republican in November.

"New York is getting bad again. I was in the city in the '80s and the only way I could ride the subway was to follow the Guardian Angels through the subway cars so I stayed safe," she said.

"Hopefully Curtis Sliwa can clean up the city again," she explained of the founder of the underground crime prevention group.

Diane Dagrosa, a native-born Australian who is celebrating her 40th year living in New York this October, said she was also disappointed with what she had seen.

"I watched some of the debates, but they were a waste of time really, because they only b---h at each other. You know, it was too bad, because I think people were hungry to focus on the issues. But it was like children, awful," she said of the candidates. "None of them really excited my nose."

The self-proclaimed "tell-it-like-it-is" New Yorker continued: "I just try and vote for people who I think are going to be good for the task...I voted for Kathryn Garcia as my number one, because I think she can do it. She's very capable, I think."

"Although," she added with a nod to the former Department of Sanitation commissioner, "when you think sanitation – it's very dirty here."

For the first time, the Board of Elections used ranked-choice voting and introduced a new and seemingly more complicated-looking ballot.

New Yorkers had to do some extra studying to understand the process and be informed on multiple candidates. Many came into the polling site with lists in hand of their choices for the six different categories.

Voters were able to pick up to five candidates in each category through order of preference – a reform that New Yorkers overwhelmingly approved in 2019. This year is the first election in which it has been implemented.

"At the close of Election Day, all first choice votes are counted. The candidate to receive over 50% of votes wins," the Board of Elections explained in a YouTube video. But with so many in the running this year, an outright majority is unlikely.

In that case, the new process will begin eliminating candidates who ranked at the bottom of the pack and redistribute voter's second choices to those who are higher up, until a candidate has enough votes to be declared the winner by majority.

The system is a lengthy one, but ultimately the city hopes it will aid in less skewed voting by distributing voters' preferences more evenly. It also gives New Yorkers a say if their favorite candidate is immediately eliminated, and does away with the need for a run-off election.

Dagrosa said her voting experience went more smoothly than she anticipated.

"With the ranked voting, I thought 'Oh God, the [other voters] are gonna be in their little booth for forever.' But they weren't. I didn't wait anywhere. I was amazed," she said. "Because I think, 'People are too stupid for this.' But they managed very well!"

"Lord only knows what their ballot looked like," she added.

Following suit of the voting ballot shake-up, many voters purely cast their ballot on Tuesday by betting on drastic change, rather than focusing on specific issues.

"I voted for Yang. If he was good enough and held his own on a national level, he's personable and smart enough and tech-savvy for NYC," said a voter outside Manhattan Plaza who preferred to remain anonymous. "He's also fresh and unencumbered by scandal or dirty dealings.

"And [it's] about time for an Asian in charge," he added.

Knowing whether change will come may take some time. Mail-in ballots will still be accepted for a week after Election Day, and only afterwards will the tabulation of ranked-choice voting begin.

Board of Elections officials said it could take weeks before an official primary winner is declared.

Yet the Board expects to release the results of early and in-person voters' first choices by the end of Election Night – so New Yorkers may soon find out who has an early lead, and whether their voices were heard.