Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

News

After Releasing Unofficial Ranked-Choice Results, Mayor’s Race Thrown Into Chaos As BOE Admits “Discrepancy”

Brigid Bergin

and

David Cruz

Published Jun 29, 2021

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

Kathryn Garcia and Eric Adams

Elizabeth Kim and Scott Lynch / Gothamist

Brigid Bergin

and

David Cruz

Published Jun 29, 2021

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Note: This story has been updated to reflect discrepancies in the city Board of Elections first ranked-choice tabulations.

There was no shortage of surprises on Tuesday when the New York City Board of Elections ran its first ranked tally of the Democratic primary results. At first, it appeared the tallies had changed the leaderboard, shrinking Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams lead down to 2 points over a new second place finisher, Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former Sanitation Commissioner. These results were still unofficial and only based on the in-person votes cast during early voting and on Primary Day.

But then came the next surprise: the number of votes that elections officials included in the first rank-choice tabulation shot up by 140,000 compared to the first-choice results presented on Primary Night. The city Board of Elections issued an initial statement acknowledging the discrepancy and asked for patience as they determined what caused it. Then the agency removed the ranked-tallies entirely from their site with a note indicating that new results would be posted on Wednesday, June 30th.

This is the latest episode of dysfunction for the politically-controlled agency which has struggled for years to administer elections without hiccups ranging from long wait times, to equipment issues and even purges from its voter rolls.

Just before 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, officials released a statement over Twitter saying the discrepancy is a product of human error stemming from pre-election testing that was not cleared from the file used for the initial ranked-choice tally. They then deleted the original tweet, and issued a new one:

Based on the results the Board released earlier on Tuesday, Adams only held a 15,908 vote lead in the Democratic mayoral primary. That’s down significantly from the results on Primary Night when Adams led by 9 points, or 75,000 votes, over his closest competitor, Maya Wiley. After 11 rounds of counting, Wiley was eliminated in the 10th round. But this process is far from over, particularly since the Board will now need to provide an entirely new set of results that address the altered vote totals.

As expected, the tally was already missing the more than 124,000 absentee ballots voters cast in this election, which accounts for approximately 13% of the total votes cast. The largest share of those absentee ballots comes from Manhattan followed by Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

Election officials began counting those absentee ballots on Monday and will continue each day, including weekends, until all the votes are tallied. The next ranked-choice tally will be released on Tuesday, July 6th.

When those ballots are added to tallies, the leaderboard could shuffle once again.

Wiley’s campaign was quick to issue a statement to put the preliminary results in context.

“Democracy, as John Lewis said, is an act. And New York City residents engaged in one of the central acts of democracy! They voted. And they acted when they chose overwhelmingly to adopt ranked-choice voting. I said on election night, we must allow the democratic process to continue and count every vote so that New Yorkers have faith in our democracy and government. And we must all support its results," Wiley said.

However, it soon became increasingly clear that there was a discrepancy in the initial ranked-choice tally. When elections officials issued their unofficial returns on Primary Night, which they said also reflected in-person votes cast during early voting, the first place results were based on 799,827 votes in the Democratic mayoral primary, with 96.62% percent of scanners reporting results. When the officials presented their first ranked tallies, more than 140,000 additional votes were included in the tally.

“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,” Adams said in a statement issued from his campaign. “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.”

Later on Tuesday night, Adams called the BOE's error "unfortunate," and said, "We look forward to the release of an accurate, updated simulation, and the timely conclusion of this critical process."

At a press conference inside her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, the newly resurgent Garcia said she was encouraged by the updated results, but urged New Yorkers to be patient as they await the results from absentee ballots. She noted the BOE’s actions throughout the campaign would not have her question claims of irregularities but directed any questions to the BOE.

Asked whether she would accept the results of the race once the absentee ballots are tabulated, Garcia said no legal action would be taken if all the votes are tallied fairly.

“I'm hoping that we don't end up in a place where we have to do any legal action,” she said. “But we will protect the campaign to make sure that every vote is counted and counted fairly."

Before removing the results from their website, the city BOE issued a statement over Twitter on Tuesday evening acknowledging the discrepancy and saying that they were working with their technical staff to determine what caused the error.

The Board was also supposed to issue initial ranked results for the borough presidents and City Council races. Those results are yet to be posted.

Tagged

mayoral race

ranked choice voting

election 2021

Brigid Bergin

Twitter

Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.

David Cruz

David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE news

Early Addition: Spy magazine is doing a Substack pop-up

Because the "Irony Epidemic" is hitting inboxes in honor of Spy's 40th anniversary, here are your early links: West Village gated school street, Trump still promising $5,000 checks, butter is in and more.

James Ramsay

Published Oct 6, 2026 at 8:57 a.m. ET

Bronx woman found dead and infant in critical condition after balcony fall, NYPD says

Police say it's still unclear whether the pair jumped, fell or were pushed.

Brittany Kriegstein

News

Bronx woman found dead and infant in critical condition after balcony fall, NYPD says

Police say it's still unclear whether the pair jumped, fell or were pushed.

Brittany Kriegstein

After Trump defunding, thousands losing rental assistance in NYC may finally have relief

David Brand

Blind man dismissed from grand jury duty can sue NY for discrimination, judge rules

Samantha Max

Gatorade recall affects drinks sold in New York and New Jersey

Giulia Heyward

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .