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BIG STORY JULY 02, 2021 | The Indian Eye 5
with the system in a major der prompted outrage from the
election was bumpy. As votes candidates and mockery from
were being tallied on June 29, New York residents.
elections officials bungled the Earlier in a message to his
count by inadvertently including supporters to remain commit-
135,000 old test ballots. Errone- ted to the complete counting of
ous vote tallies were posted for all votes. The Adams’ campaign
several hours before officials ac- had also issued a statement on
knowledged the error and took Ranked Choice Voting Simula-
them down. tion results announced by the
The mistake had no impact Board of Elections. “Our cam-
on the final outcome of the race. paign was the first choice of
Adams, Garcia and Wi- voters on Election Day and is
ley all filed lawsuits last week leading this race by a significant
seeking the right to review the margin because we put together
ranked choice tally. Wiley said Adams ran a vibrant campaign in the city a five-borough working class co-
in a statement Tuesday that the alition of New Yorkers to make
board “must be completely re- our city a safer, fairer, more af-
made following what can only fordable place. There are still
be described as a debacle.” As absentee ballots to be counted
for herself, she said her cam- that we believe favor Eric--and
paign would have more to say we are confident we will be the
soon about “next steps.” final choice of New Yorkers
Garcia’s campaign issued no when every vote is tallied,” said
immediate response to Tues- the statement.
day’s vote tally, but said she Mayor De Blasio also re-
would be making a statement leased a statement Wednesday
Wednesday morning. morning, calling out what he
Earlier, in a huge develop- considers to be the “fundamen-
ment on Wednesday a revised tal structural flaws” of the Board
count of New York City mayor- of Elections. “There must be an
al ballots published the leading immediate, complete recanvass
candidate Eric Adams had a of the BOE’s vote count and a
slim lead over his nearest rival. clear explanation of what went
The latest tabulation gave Ad- Andrew Yang wrong,” de Blasio said. “The
ams, a retired police captain record number of voters who
and Brooklyn borough presi- turned out this election deserve
dent, 51.1 per cent of the vote. nothing less.”
The tabulation showed Kathryn The election was the first in
Garcia, the former head of the which the city is using ranked
sanitation department, at 48.9 choice voting, giving each voter
per cent, unchanged from the the option to list up to five can-
previous count. The new figures didates on their ballot in order
came out after a botched tally of preference. The losing candi-
on Tuesday that thrust the race dates are eliminated in successive
into chaos. rounds, with their votes reallocat-
On Wednesday, the mar- ed until only two finalists remain.
gin between the Democratic Yang, a former presiden-
contenders shrank from 15,908 tial candidate once seen as the
votes to 14,755 votes, with front-runner in the race, was
roughly 124,000 absentee bal- eliminated after the seventh
lots still to be counted. round, and nearly 37,000 —
Notable candidates in the or about 33 percent — of his
June 22 primary election includ- This election was one of the most contested with more than 111,000 votes went
ed Brooklyn Borough President several candidates in the fray to Ms. Garcia, a former sanita-
Eric Adams; former commis- tion commissioner. In compari-
sioner of the NYC Dept. of San- Dozens of members of the New on Wednesday evening with an son, roughly 31,000 votes — or
itation Kathryn Garcia; NYC York City business and political apology after its extraordinary about 28 percent of Mr. Yang’s
Comptroller Scott Stringer; communities also campaigned failure a day earlier led to about total — went to Mr. Adams.
former counsel to Bill de Blasio for the role. 135,000 ballots from a test run Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to
Maya Wiley; and former presi- The city’s board of elec- of the system being erroneously Mayor Bill de Blasio, received
dential candidate Andrew Yang. tions had released the recount included in the tally. The blun- Continued on next page... >>
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