New York City mayoral race: Eric Adams wins Democratic primary

The results showed that the former police officer received 50.5pc of the nearly 938,000 votes.

Eric Adams says that while there are still votes to count, he felt confident in the results. Picture: AFP

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former police officer who made public safety the centrepiece of his campaign, won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, according to election results released on Wednesday.

The city’s Board of Election released the results after a ranked-choice tabulation of in-person votes and more than 125,000 absentee ballots. The process involved the elimination of candidates and redistribution of votes over a series of rounds until only two contestants remained.

The results showed that Mr Adams received 50.5 per cent of the nearly 938,000 votes. Former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia received 49.5 per cent of votes and trailed Mr Adams by 8426 votes — an insurmountable gap as fewer than 1000 votes remain to be counted.

The Associated Press called the race for Mr Adams after the results were released.

Maya Wiley, a former counsel to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, is third.

Mr Adams said that while there are still votes to count, he felt confident in the results.

“Now we must focus on winning in November so that we can deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Ms Garcia’s campaign said the campaign was “currently seeking additional clarity on outstanding ballots and are committed to supporting the Democratic nominee”.

Even with the latest results, the Board of Elections won’t declare an official winner until the week of July 12.

Voters who submitted absentee ballots have until July 9 for a curing process to fix any errors noticed by the Board of Elections. Board officials said on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST) that 942 absentee ballots needed to be cured — a number that likely wouldn’t affect the outcome of the race.

Some of the campaigns could also challenge election results in court. The campaigns for Mr Adams, Ms Garcia and Ms Wiley all filed lawsuits against their opponents and the Board of Elections, a standard move that allows them the ability to have a judge inspect ballots.

The mayoral primary was held on June 22, the first big test of the city’s new ranked-choice voting system. Voters were allowed to list up to five candidates in preferential order.

Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, won the Republican mayoral primary. The winner of the Democratic mayoral primary is likely to prevail in the general election in the fall because Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly six to one. Mr Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor.

The Board of Elections has released the results of the primary in waves in an effort to be transparent but has taken flak for the slow rollout of tallies. Last week, it retracted a preliminary tabulation because it had inadvertently included 135,000 dummy ballots in a count.

The counting snafu prompted renewed calls to overhaul the board, which has been accused of mismanaging voter records in the past and overseeing elections that have led to long waits at the polls.

New York state Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, called the situation “a national embarrassment” and said the Democrat-dominated chamber would hold hearings and “seek to pass reform legislation as a result at the earliest opportunity”.

Other legislators have introduced bills that would completely overhaul the agency.

Board commissioner Michael Michel said at Tuesday’s meeting that the board’s staff have all worked hard during the primary and should be congratulated, instead of criticised, for last week’s tallying error.

“Unfortunately this happened, and it was in error,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal