Carolyn Maloney Ahead In NY-12 Following Absentee Ballot Count

NEW YORK, NY — New York Congressmemeber Carolyn Maloney leads challenger Suraj Patel for the Democratic nomination for New York's 12th Congressional district following the completed count of tens of thousands of absentee ballots, a spokesperson for the incumbent's campaign announced Tuesday.

Maloney leads Patel by more than 3,700 votes following Tuesday's count, the lawmaker said in a statement Tuesday. Maloney's statement called the final vote count a "decisive winning margin." The incumbent led Patel by just 648 votes on the day of the June 23 election.

"The Congresswoman is delighted, now that the Board of Elections has finished their preliminary scans of absentee ballots, to have a decisive winning margin of over 3,700 votes. Both she and the campaign are thankful and appreciative of all our volunteers and supporters, whose hard work and perseverance have made this possible," a Maloney campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

The vast majority of NY-12 voters — the district spans much of Manhattan's east side as well as parts of north Brooklyn and Queens' East River waterfront — cast their votes by absentee ballot, according to data collected by the city Board of Elections. The BOE collected 65,706 absentee ballots compared to 39,635 in-person votes.

Patel also issued statement following the completion of the BOE's count in which he notably did not concede the race. His campaign is a plaintiff a lawsuit filed by two campaigns and dozens of voters who claim that New York Gov. Cuomo and the BOE should reinstate all absentee ballots that were discarded for the June 23 primary due to delays in distributing the ballots to voters and inconsistencies in processing the votes. Patel claims that more than 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected in New York's 12th Congressional District.

"Courts have held that you are not entitled to a perfect election, but you are entitled to a free and fair one," Patel said in a statement. "Unfortunately, in ours, thousands of voters never received their ballots, and for those who returned their ballots by mail, nearly 25 percent were rejected. This is not just slightly above the norm compared with other states. It's 100 times the rejection rate of Wisconsin. It shatters any semblance of normalcy — states like Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, South Carolina, and Mississippi all have invalidation rates under 1 percent."