Eric Adams Projected To Win NYC Mayoral Primary

NEW YORK CITY — Eric Adams won the Democratic mayoral primary after a count of absentee ballots, the Associated Press projected.

Preliminary results released Tuesday evening show Adams ahead 50.5 percent to Garcia's 49.5 percent after eight rounds of ranked-choice voting counts.

Adams and Garcia had 8,426 votes between them, according to the unofficial results from the city's Board of Elections.

The AP called the race for Adams about 7:30 p.m., signaling the few votes yet to be counted weren't enough for Garcia to make the difference. The count Tuesday included about 125,000 absentee ballots that Garcia hoped would close the gap with Adams.

"While there are still some very small amounts of votes to be counted, the results are clear: an historic, diverse, five-borough coalition led by working-class New Yorkers has led us to victory in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City," Adams said in a statement. "Now we must focus on winning in November so that we can deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers."

The unofficial vote count came at the end of a long Tuesday. Results were promised earlier in the day by the BOE's Twitter account.

"We promise today's release is more brunch special vs. club hours," the tweet stated.

We promise today’s release is more brunch special vs. club hours.
— NYC Board of Elections (@BOENYC) July 6, 2021

The BOE's brunch hour extended past the afternoon and into the evening, when thunderstorms swept over the city.

Results finally went live just past 6:30 p.m., starting a citywide scramble to make heads or tails of them.

In terms of the troubled BOE, it was less embarrassing than last week's debacle in which board officials tallied 135,000 test votes with ballots counted that day. The "discrepancy" forced the board to scrap all the preliminary results released that day and release a redone count.

The BOE has faced criticism for its piecemeal release of ranked-choice voting results. Voters hit the polls June 22 and the BOE released results that night.

But New Yorkers and candidates had to wait a week for the first count of ranked-choice votes, in which candidates are eliminated and voters' second-, third-, fourth- or fifth-choice ranks are apportioned to successive rounds of remaining candidates.

Adams, in that initially botched count, finished at 51.1 percent to Garcia's 48.9 percent after nine rounds of ranked-choice voting, according to the unofficial results.

The latest round released Tuesday showed Garcia widened a lead over third-place finisher Maya Wiley and siphoned off more votes from Wiley's elimination.

But it may not be enough. The unofficial round eight results are:

• Eric Adams — 403,333 votes (50.5 percent)
• Kathryn Garcia — 394,907 votes (49.5 percent)

Board of Elections officials have until Friday to receive ballot cures. July 12 is the first day results can be finalized.