Ranked choice voting and a massive number of absentee ballots gave hundreds of candidates for City Council the chance for an exciting come-from-behind finish by racking up late second- and third-choice votes.
But that scenario seemed to play out in only three districts after most absentee ballots were counted Tuesday.
In Harlem, political newcomer Kristin Richardson Jordan was beating incumbent City Councilmember Bill Perkins by just 100 votes in the District 9 Democratic primary, according to the latest totals from the Board of Elections, which are still not final.
In Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, community activist and attorney Shekar Krishnan appears to have bested Yi Chen, a former state Assembly aide, who originally had the most first-choice votes in the Democratic primary for District 25 in Queens. With absentee ballots counted, Krishnan pulled ahead with 53.4% of the vote to Chen’s 46.6%, BOE results show.
And ranked choice voting boosted a Republican City Council aide in Staten Island’s midland district. David Carr took 51.4% of the vote in District 50, overtaking Marko Kepi, who garnered 48.6% of the vote so far.
Most of the roughly 300 candidates for Council this year ran in Democratic primaries, and many races had long slates of contenders — topped by the 15 who went head to head in Queens’ 26th Council district. Julie Won beat back the crowd there, topping second-place finisher Amit Bagga with 56.7% of the vote.
While still unofficial, the latest results also suggest a historic reshaping is slated for the Council, which is likely to become a majority female legislative body for the first time. Among them would be the first Muslim woman to serve in the Council: Shahana Hanif, who is in the lead for the Democratic nomination for District 39 in Brooklyn with 57% of the vote as of the July 6 tally.
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