New York City will not start counting mailed primary ballots until next week

The New York City Board of Elections will not start counting ballots that were mailed in for last week’s primaries until next week, likely delaying results in a number of competitive races that remain too close to call.

The board confirmed to The Hill that Staten Island will begin counting votes on Monday and that the rest of the city’s four boroughs will start tabulating the mail-in ballots on Tuesday. 

The delay means official calls will be further pushed back in a slew of key uncalled races, including the House primary in the 16th Congressional District, where Jamaal Bowman appears set to unseat Rep. Eliot Engel (D), and in the 12th Congressional District, where Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D) is trying to fend off a competitive challenge from Suraj Patel.

Both chair committees and their ouster would prove a huge win for progressives this campaign cycle.

Calls for several state Assembly seats will also be delayed.

The city board, much like election boards across the country, has been swamped with a flood of mail-in ballots as voters opt to send their votes in from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our staff in the boroughs are working diligently to organize all of this paper so that when the process commences it will commence in an orderly fashion,” New York City Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan announced at the end of a board meeting on Tuesday afternoon, according to Politico.

“If we have to sacrifice speed for accuracy, we will always err on the side of accuracy and not give into the pressure to speed things up. Because speeding things up can lead to errors and errors lead to undermining confidence in the elections process and perhaps an unfair result,” he said.

In the 16th District, Bowman has a hefty 25-point lead over Engel, while Maloney holds a narrow 1.6-point advantage over Patel in the 12th District.

Other closely watched races including the primary in the 15th District, where New York City Councilmember Ritchie Torres leads in the race to replace retiring Rep. José Serrano (D), and the primary in the 17th District, where progressive Mondaire Jones leads in the race to replace retiring Rep. Nita Lowey (D). 

Both Torres and Jones are running in heavily Democratic districts and would be the first openly Black and gay members of Congress.