Queens DA primary recount ends; Katz declares victory
Melinda Katz, left, and Tiffany Caban, candidates for Queens County district attorney, June 13, 2019. (AP file)
NEW YORK (AP) - Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has declared victory over public defender Tiffany Cabán in the race for the Democratic nomination for Queens district attorney. But Cabán said the race is not over.
The manual recount of more than 90,000 votes in New York City ended Thursday, exactly one month after the June 25 primary.
"Now that every valid vote has been counted and recounted, the results confirm once again that the people of Queens have chosen Melinda Katz as the Democratic nominee for district attorney," the Katz campaign said in a statement.
But Cabán said her campaign "will be in court to make sure the people of Queens are not disenfranchised."
The New York City Board of Elections did not announce the results of the recount on Thursday but is expected to certify the results within days.
Cabán led by 1,090 votes immediately after the election, but Katz pulled ahead by 16 votes after absentee and affidavit ballots were counted.
Cabán's campaign said "only dozens" of votes separated the two candidates after the recount and said it would press on with its legal challenge seeking to restore hundreds of ballots invalidated by the Board of Elections.
"These ballots include Cabán votes were that inappropriately thrown out by the Board of Elections during the manual recount, as well as ballots that have been improperly discounted due to BOE errors and arcane technicalities that can be open to legal review," the campaign said in a statement.