Democratic Primary for Town Hall | Election mess in New York

(New York) The editorial page of the New York daily condemned the “crime against democracy”. The city mayor demanded that the commission that caused the failure be abolished. Donald Trump says all this is proving to him about election rigging.

Richard Hatu
Special contribution

What are they talking about? The release of the preliminary results of the Democratic primary for the mayor of New York is from the epic mess around.

On June 22, New York City used preferential voting for the first time and other ballots held that day. So Democratic voters can pick five candidates to make Bill de Blasio successful, who is about to leave town hall after two terms.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams came in first after counting the votes cast individually. His 10 percent point lead over his closest rival put him in excellent position to win.

However, as he did not get 50% of the first choice votes, the counting of votes continued in the form of twists and turns on Tuesday, giving an unexpected unexpected result. Eric Adams, who received 51.1% of the vote after 11 rounds, now has only a 2 percent lead over former mayor Catherine Garcia, led by mayors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg.

With more than 124,000 mail-in ballots counting, it is now impossible for Catherine Garcia to close the gap of 15,908 votes between them.

New results

But did the New York City Electoral Commission count the votes correctly?

Faced with allegations of incompetence and autocracy for almost a century, this body has overcome its notoriety by committing the most stupid and damaging electoral offenses under the circumstances. At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, after hours of chaos, she admitted that 135,000 dummy ballots had been used to test her counting software for ballots cast in person on June 22nd.

The Election Commission on Wednesday submitted new preliminary results. Another surprise: these results are no different from those published on Tuesday. Eric Adams still collects 51.1% of the vote, compared to 48.9% for Catherine Garcia. The important difference is that the gap between the two candidates has been reduced to 14,755 votes, more than 124,000 ballots to count.

Another important detail: lawyer and civil rights activist Maya Wiley is still likely to win, trailing Garcia by just 347 votes.

Will the new results inspire confidence? It remains to be seen. Some, including Donald Trump, would be happy to entertain this skepticism.

“With regard to the 2020 presidential election, it has been announced [mardi soir] The former president commented in a statement released Wednesday morning that there had been widespread manipulation and error in New York and that Eric Adams had failed to win the race despite an almost insurmountable lead. “The thing is, based on what happened, no one really knows who won.”

In an editorial talking about “crime against democracy”, The Daily News He compared the mistake of Election Commission officials to the “lies” of Rudolf Giuliani and Donald Trump.

“Through their incompetence, they sow more confusion and distrust in America’s largest city than the lies of Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump. Shoot them. Shoot them all.”

Three optimistic candidates

Meanwhile, it is hoped that the three candidates with the highest number of votes will win.

“There are still some mail-in ballots in favor of Eric,” said a spokesman for the leader’s campaign team, who posted a message similar to that of Catherine Garcia.

Describing Tuesday’s election as a “defeat,” Maya Wiley said in a statement that “the election is still a long way off.”

This is not the first time the commission has been criticized. In 1940, the city’s investigation included “illegality, incompetence, sensitivity and waste.”

The situation has not really improved. In 2016, the commission mistakenly removed the names of about 200,000 New Yorkers from the voters’ list. Last year, it sent about 100,000 ballot papers to voters who wanted to vote by mail to the wrong address.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday called on New York state legislators to abolish the commission and replace it with a body of political experts.

But lawmakers sitting in the state capital, Albany, have opposed the removal of one of the last places of encouragement in New York City for decades.