Eric Adams’s lead narrows in New York Democratic mayoral primary, with Kathryn Garcia moving into second place

By Felicia Sonmez and Reis Thebault,

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams saw his lead in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary narrow Tuesday, with former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia pulling into a close second place.

But hours later, the city’s Board of Elections cast those results into question, saying there was a “discrepancy” in the vote tally. Without providing details, it asked candidates and the public to “have patience.”

By Tuesday evening, the board had removed all of the unofficial results from its website and replaced them with a message stating, “Unofficial Rank Choice Results Starting on June 30.”

More than 124,000 votes remain to be counted, with the final result expected to be known by mid-July. The winner of the Democratic primary will face talk-show host Curtis Sliwa, who was projected to win the Republican primary in the race to succeed Mayor Bill de Blasio (D).

The eventual Democratic primary winner probably will be elected mayor in November because of New York City’s strongly Democratic bent.

As of last week, Adams was holding a comfortable lead in the city’s inaugural ranked-choice election, with civil rights attorney Maya Wiley in second place. But that had shifted dramatically by Tuesday.

According to the latest unofficial results, Adams now holds 51.1 percent of the vote, while Garcia is in second place with 48.9 percent. Fewer than 16,000 votes separate the two. But the New York City Board of Elections said in a tweet Tuesday evening that those results include a “discrepancy” and that it is working to resolve the issue.

“We are aware there is a discrepancy in the unofficial RCV round by round elimination report,” the elections board said, referring to ranked-choice voting. “We are working with our RCV technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred. We ask the public, elected officials and candidates to have patience.”

In a statement earlier Tuesday afternoon, Garcia urged her supporters to be patient as the vote-tallying continues.

“Even with today’s ranked choice report we are still waiting for more than 120,000 absentee ballots to be counted and we are confident about a path to victory,” she said. “Once all the votes are counted, I know everyone will support the Democratic nominee and that’s exactly what I intend to do. We look forward to the final results. Democracy is worth waiting for.”

Adams, who would be New York’s second Black mayor, celebrated as polls closed last week, telling a crowd that “the little guy won today.” In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Adams said the vote tally was marked by “irregularities,” without providing further details.

“The vote total just released by the Board of Elections is 100,000-plus more than the total announced on election night, raising serious questions,” the statement said. “We have asked the Board of Elections to explain such a massive increase and other irregularities before we comment on the Ranked Choice Voting projection. We remain confident that Eric Adams will be the next mayor of New York because he put together a historic five-borough working class coalition of New Yorkers to make our city a safer, fairer, more affordable place.”

The city’s system allows voters to list up to five candidates in order of preference. If no one receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and that person’s votes are redistributed to whoever those voters ranked second. In New York, this process repeats until two candidates remain. Whoever has more votes in the final round wins.

As the coronavirus receded in the city, public safety became the campaign’s central issue. Adams, a former police officer, sought to position himself as the race’s law-and-order candidate.

Wiley, the only leading candidate arguing for cuts to the New York Police Department’s budget, appeared to outperform public opinion polls.

There is also the potential impact of 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s 11th-hour campaigning with Garcia. Yang, who was the fourth-place finisher and conceded last week, encouraged his voters to select Garcia as their second choice.