July 25, 2019, Jackie Strawbridge
The recount in the Queens District Attorney Democratic primary race completed today, with Borough President Melinda Katz declaring victory over public defender Tiffany Cabán.
“Now that every valid vote has been counted and recounted, the results confirm once again that the people of Queens have chosen Melinda Katz as the Democratic nominee for District Attorney,” Katz campaign adviser Andrew Kirtzman said in a statement.
The Board of Elections has not yet released the certified results, however Katz reportedly appears to have a lead of roughly 60 votes.
There are also about 100 uncounted affidavit ballots that remain in dispute. These ballots had been invalidated due to technical errors in how they were filled out.
Cabán is challenging the invalidation of these ballots in court. The next court date is Aug. 6.
The Cabán campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Katz’s declaration of victory.
The primary was held on June 25 and Cabán initially held a lead over Katz of more than 1,000 votes—until affidavit and absentee ballots were counted, ultimately putting Katz 16 votes ahead.
That narrow gap triggered the recount. All told, more than 90,000 were manually sorted and then recounted in a process that began on July 9.