Melinda Katz Claims Surprise Victory In Queens DA Vote Count

QUEENS, NY — Queens Borough President Melinda Katz claimed a surprise victory over challenger Tiffany Cabán in the most recent Queens district attorney primary paper ballot tally, but by a margin so slim that it triggered a recount.

Wednesday night's tally, which now includes absentee and affidavit ballots, shows that Katz won the Democratic primary by a margin of just 20 votes, according to a New York Times report.

"We said from the beginning that every vote needs to be counted and that every voter needs to be heard," stated Katz. "Now we see clearly why this must always be the case."

But this is not the end of the race, as even Katz acknowledged in her public statement. The slim margin automatically triggered a recount, which is mandated by the New York City Board of Elections when the victory is by less than 0.5 percent, spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez-Diaz told the Times.

The NYC Board of Elections' manual count of over 6,000 absentee and affidavit ballots — paper ballots cast when voters encounter an issue at a polling site — began Wednesday morning in Forest Hills, though staffers had preliminarily invalidated roughly 2,000 affidavit ballots.

Cabán has not conceded the race in part because The Board of Elections' decision to invalidate those votes, according to an amNY report.

"[We are] still fighting to make sure every valid ballot is counted," Cabán reportedly said. "We are confident that if that happens, we will be victorious."

Cabán claimed victory the night of the election, when results showed her leading Katz by 1,090 votes. But NY1 and The New York Times, which were tracking the live election results, deemed the race too close to call.

At the time, Katz said she wouldn't concede the election until all votes were counted: "With such an important office at stake, every voice throughout the borough needs to be heard and every vote needs to be counted."