PATERSON – Electric, charismatic, the grinning carnival barker of the Alex Mendez Show, the mayoral candidate commanded a strong-looking cadre of backers outside the Riverside Vets, a briskly performing polling place at the heart of Mendez Country in the 3rd Ward.

It was after 5 p.m.

The workers were shambling in.

Radiant in orange shirt and blue blazer, a beaming, confident-looking Mendez was working it, overtime with less than three hours to go before the polls closed.

Mendez’s last stand.

Simultaneously downtown, the operation of Mendez arch-rival Pedro Rodriguez looked strong, well-performing.

Rodriguez and his team work out of the same headquarters Jose “Joey” Torres used for the win in 2014, with Rodriguez at his side as a key organizer.

“Don’t count us out,” Rodriguez Spokesperson Victoria Tahhan told InsiderNJ.

But Mendez claimed his base was with him, through all the negative stories and through the late surgical movements of Rodriguez.

The Paterson Times referenced a poll worker at Riverside Vets who said performance levels at the big Hispanic polling station was much better than four years ago.