NYC Mayoral Race in Turmoil After 135,000 'Dummy Ballots' Skew Vote Count
Published Date: 6/30/2021
Source: Bloomberg Quicktake: Now
New York City election officials thrust the race for the next mayor into turmoil Tuesday after erroneously counting test ballots alongside election night results, producing about 135,000 “dummy ballots” that skewed results of the city’s first major test of a new ranked-choice voting system. The major blunder forced the Board of Elections to retract preliminary results it had posted hours earlier. The board promised to republish corrected results Wednesday that will show whether Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will maintain his lead over former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley. Practically, the results released Tuesday had little bearing on determining the final winner of the race, which won’t be certified until 125,000 absentee votes are counted beginning next week. This week’s results are meant to show only who would have won the election if absentee ballots weren’t included, an incremental data release intended to provide voters with at least some transparency into the process. But the debacle marks an inauspicious start for New York’s new system of ranked-choice voting, which asks primary voters to list their top five candidates in order of preference instead of picking just one. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake