New York City Democratic Mayor election tightened after new vote count; winner uncertain Reuters

Author: Joseph Aix

(Reuters)-The total number of new votes announced in the Democratic Mayor of New York City on Tuesday significantly reduced the lead of Brooklyn Mayor Eric Adams, making the outcome even more uncertain, with thousands of absentee votes still uncounted .

Former health director Catherine Garcia ranked second, while former MSNBC analyst and civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley ranked third.

According to preliminary statistics on the preferred votes of voters who voted in person, Adams had a considerable lead on election day a week ago.

But the mayoral election uses a ranking selection system for the first time, and voters can rank up to five candidates in order of priority. Tuesday’s statistics are the first analysis of these choices.

The ranking selection system operates as a series of instant runoff. The last candidate is eliminated, and his or her votes are redistributed to voters’ second choice. Repeat this process until there are only two candidates left and the majority of votes are declared the winner.

After 11 rounds of elimination, Adams leads Garcia with a 51% to 49% advantage, with a margin of slightly less than 16,000 out of more than 700,000 total votes.

Willie was the last candidate to be eliminated; in the penultimate round, she trailed Garcia by less than 4,000 votes.

However, Tuesday’s statistics did not include any of the approximately 125,000 absentee ballots received, which could easily change the final result.

Election officials plan to restart the ranking selection voting table next week, this time including at least some absentee ballots.

Last week, based on the incomplete results announced on Election Day, Adams received 32% of the preferred votes. Wiley accounted for 22%, and Garcia ranked third with 19%.

Former presidential candidate Andrew Young ranked fourth and admitted to running on the night of the election.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face the Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the November general election, who is the founder of the Guardian Angel Civilian Patrol. In the most populous city in the United States, the ratio of Democratic voters to Republican voters exceeds six to one.

The next mayor will be responsible for overseeing the city’s difficult recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which has been affected by a sharp increase in shooting incidents. The city also faces deep-seated problems such as lack of affordable housing, homelessness and wealth inequality.