New York City’s elections board abruptly removed the unofficial vote count for the mayoral Democratic primary election from its website late Tuesday after the board said it was investigating a “discrepancy” in the count.
Preliminary results released earlier in the day showed Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams maintaining a lead over the other candidates, but suggested the race would be closer than expected when all the votes were counted, The New York Times reported. But the vote count was removed Tuesday evening, replaced by a notice that the results would be available “starting on June 30.”
The elections board tweeted hours later that a “discrepancy” had been found in its ranked-choice vote software, an electoral system which allows voters to rank candidates in order of their preference, which the city is using for the first time. The board added that it was working with its “technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred.”
We are aware there is a discrepancy in the unofficial RCV round by round elimination report. 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.
— NYC Board of Elections (@BOENYC) June 29, 2021
The elections board tweeted another statement Tuesday night that it had failed to remove sample ballot images used to test the new ranked-choice voting software. The board said its program counted “both test and election night results” and produced 135,000 extra ballots. (RELATED: Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia In Nail-Biting Race To Become New York City’s Next Mayor)
The debacle has thrown New York City’s closely watched mayoral race into chaos, and the elections board noted it will need to both re-generate the cast vote record and re-tabulate the ranked-choice voting numbers.
— NYC Board of Elections (@BOENYC) June 30, 2021
Even after the elections board has recalibrated its ranked-choice voting software and sorted through the preliminary tally once again, it must count around 124,000 Democratic absentee ballots and run them through the ranked-choice elimination rounds, The Times reported. The board said a final result will not be expected until mid-July.
Adams had called the preliminary results into question in a statement released before the elections board took them down. His remarks were routinely condemned by numerous political commentators and pundits, hours before the elections board ultimately admitted there was a “discrepancy” in its vote tabulation.
Tim Fullerton, a former digital team lead in former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, accused Adams of “trying to cast doubt on the election results” and claimed that “there is no validity to these baseless allegations.”
Vox senior correspondent Ian Millhiser tweeted that Adams’ skepticism of the results was “some Donald Trump shit.” MSNBC host Chris Hayes similarly compared Adams’ comments to the “conspiracy-theorizing and delegitimization of elections” which he claimed Trump and the GOP had taken part in.
Seems pretty insulting to imply that Eric Adams is somehow following and copying Trump instead of making his own choices.
Seems desperately partisan to blame Trump for a Democratic NYC Mayoral candidate’s actions.
Why are so many liberals rooting for Garcia over Adams? https://t.co/WsksLgYgY2
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 29, 2021
Several other verified Twitter accounts compared Adams to former President Donald Trump, who attempted to contest the 2020 election results by alleging that voting irregularities and widespread voter fraud had taken place.
Adams’ skepticism of the electoral process appeared to be justified, however, given the elections board’s recent update. His campaign said in a second statement later Tuesday it remained optimistic despite the latest development, The Times reported.
“Earlier today, the Board of Elections released a ranked choice voting simulation based on last week’s election results that they have since acknowledged include ‘discrepancies,'” his campaign said. “We are waiting for an explanation and still confident in our lead.”