The recount for the district attorney’s office is over but the race has not quite been declared with 114 votes yet to be resolved in a court case.
After a nearly two-week manual tabulation of 91,000 votes, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has once again asserted victory with a 60 vote lead over opponent public defender Tiffany Cabán on Thursday.
“I am so proud that the people of the borough I have served for so many years have given us this victory today,” said Katz. “I want to thank all the volunteers, supporters, and civic leaders who believed in this campaign.”
Despite Katz’s affirmation of triumph, Cabán’s campaign believes that scores of votes were erroneously invalidated by the Board of Elections and will be going to court on Aug. 6 to have those ballots reviewed.
“We have said from day one that we will keep fighting until all the valid votes of eligible Queens Democrats are counted,” said Cabán. “Our communities are calling for a fair and equitable criminal justice system that ends mass incarceration, uplifts our black and brown communities, and decriminalizes poverty — rather than protecting the powerful.”
While Cabán is ready for a fight in court, Katz is looking towards the future for what she considers her new role.
“I look forward to continuing my work on behalf of the families of Queens, and to beginning the critical work of instituting true criminal justice reform, ensuring fairness and equity, and keeping the people of this borough safe,” said Katz.
Cabán spokeswoman Monica Klein says the race is just to close to call.
“Over a hundred eligible voters were disenfranchised by the Board of Elections for a variety of reasons,” said Klein. “No eligible voter should have their vote thrown out because the Board of Elections failed to help them fill out a form correctly or did not alert them to the correct polling site.”
Jerry Goldfeder, Cabán’s lawyer, believes there are even more votes than the initially contested 114 that also should be counted.
“We will also ask the Court to order the counting of many other votes — by poll workers who were given wrong envelopes to place their ballots; voters who were registered where the Board erroneously ruled they were not; and the many voters who were misdirected to wrong poll sites,” said Goldfeder.
