New York City counts test ballots in mayoral primary

(The Center Square) – The New York City Democratic mayoral primary, a race that has attracted national attention, drew even more Tuesday night after the city’s Board of Elections admitted about 135,000 test ballots were tabulated with actual results.

The board acknowledged a “discrepancy” a couple of hours after posting unofficial results with ranked-choice votes tabulated. That showed Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams holding a nearly 16,000-vote, or 2.2 percentage points, advantage over former city Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

Later Tuesday evening, the Board of Elections issued an apology indicating test ballots were not removed from the system before the real votes were tabulated.

“Board staff has removed all test ballot images from the system and will upload election night results, cross-referencing against election night reporting software for verification,” the board’s statement read.

The board’s website said updated totals would be posted Wednesday.

The two candidates who were apparently in contention both released statements. Adams called the board’s error “unfortunate” and appreciated its transparency.

Garcia said the release of inaccurate totals was “deeply troubling,” but added she felt certain that once results were finalized candidates would support the winner.

While a public agency, the New York City Board of Elections is overseen by a panel of 10 commissioners. Each of the five boroughs has two members nominated, with Republicans and Democrats having one commissioner for each borough.

The mayor’s office does not have any oversight of the panel.

Incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is term-limited, blasted the board in a statement, saying “fundamental structural flaws” were again revealed. He noted he once offered the board $20 million to help initiate reforms.

That offer was declined.

“Going forward, there must be a complete structural rebuild of the board,” de Blasio said.

He said two options exist to do that. One would be to pass legislation sponsored by State Senator Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and Assembly Member Nily Rozic, D-Queens, that would “professionalize” the board. The other is an amendment to the state Constitution to establish a new agency.

Even after the board tabulates the votes again and produces new results Wednesday, the race is far from over as thousands of absentee ballots must still be processed.

Those ballots mean a primary winner won’t be known until sometime next month and with ranked-choice voting – where voters were allowed to rank their top five choices in the race – it’s possible another candidate may emerge as well.

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