Queens Dems' Leader Lambasts 'Trumpian' Tactics In DA Race

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Queens County Democratic Chair Gregory Meeks accused Queens district attorney candidate Tiffany Cabán's campaign team and supporters of spreading "misinformation" and "lies" as a manual recount of the razor-thin primary election results began.

Meeks convened a who's who of party officials and local civic and labor leaders Tuesday outside the Forest Hills Board of Elections office to decry what they called the "Trumpian" rhetoric of Cabán's supporters after her apparent victory turned into a 16-vote lead for Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, the party-endorsed candidate.

Katz did not attend the press conference; campaign spokesman Matthew Rey said the press conference was put together independently of Katz's campaign and declined to comment further.

"I personally feel like a lot of the people making that noise, they don't come from Queens — these folks do," Meeks said, gesturing at the crowd of 50-some people behind him.

State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi accused the party of stealing the election in a tweet, and prominent activist Shaun King claimed without evidence that the elections board threw out 1,000 votes by affidavit ballot that were for Cabán.

Cabán's campaign has distanced itself from allegations of fraud, stating that there is no evidence of such behavior by the board of elections, according to a POLITICO report.

"The language that we use matters," City Council Member Donovan Richards said. "Democrats should not match the bombastic rhetoric coming out of the White House."

Cabán "seems to have a good individual heart," State Sen. Leroy Comrie said, "but the people behind her are terrible."

Massive turnout today at the Forest Hills BOE office for a press conference hosted by @RepGregoryMeeks regarding the Queens DA primary election. pic.twitter.com/8sY3XdYkj8
— Maya Kaufman (@mayakauf) July 9, 2019

The elections board has started preparing for a manual recount of some 90,000 ballots cast in the dramatic primary race, triggered by Katz's lead of less than 0.5 percent of the vote.

The recount could add hundreds of votes to the final tally, because the machines that scan votes don't count ballots with marking errors.

A Queens County Supreme Court judge will review 114 affidavit ballots that were invalidated for missing information, like party affiliation, if the election results are still close following the recount. The recount is expected to take a minimum of 10 days.

"Our nation was built on the promise of making sure every vote is counted," Meeks said Tuesday. He added the party wants to ensure every "valid" vote is counted, emphasizing the word.

Cabán's supporters say a recently-passed bill that makes affidavit ballots harder to discard could affect the results of the race by making more votes count — but Gov. Andrew Cuomo has yet to sign it.

They are now calling on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who endorsed Katz in the DA race, to send the bill to Cuomo's desk for a signature, which would immediately put the law into effect.

"Some are now calling for it because they're trying to find and change the rules after the game is over," Meeks told Patch, responding to a question about whether he would call on Cuomo to sign that bill, A1320.

"Did you hear anybody talking about the votes that the legislature had not sent down to the governor before the election, that it was extremely important? It's only after," Meeks added. "I don't see what the big deal is about that."