Melinda Katz casting her vote in the June 25 election. (Melinda Katz)
July 4, 2019 By Christian Murray
Melinda Katz has declared victory in the Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney, following the manual recount on Wednesday of thousands of absentee and affidavit ballots.
The margin of victory over Tiffany Cabán was 20 votes, according to several well-placed sources. The City was the first publication to attribute the razor-thin margin to the Board of Elections.
The vote differential, however, is so slim that it will result in an automatic manual recount of all 80,000-plus ballots cast. A margin of victory below 450 votes (0.5 percent) triggers such a recount.
“We said from the beginning that every vote needs to be counted and that every voter needs to be heard and now we see clearly why this must always be the case,” Katz said in a statement. “I am proud to have been chosen as the Democratic nominee for Queens District Attorney.”
Katz anticipates a tough battle ahead before the election results are certified, expected to be done by mid July.
“We know that these numbers can and will be subject to the recount, and there may be legal challenges, but what matters most is the will of Queens voters….This is Democracy.”
Many Cabán supporters were stunned by the change of events. Cabán started the day 1,199 votes ahead of Katz only for the lead to vanish. They questioned the integrity of the BOE, which has a reputation of being staffed by party loyalists.
When Cabán declared victory on June 25, her supporters were convinced the results would hold, since they knew that Katz needed to win an overwhelming majority of the 6,300 absentee and affidavit ballots that had to be counted. Additionally, there were six candidates vying for the votes.
Yesterday’s count was controversial, since the BOE ruled out about 2,000 affidavit ballots. They were reportedly deemed invalid for a variety of reasons, including the ballot being mailed too late, the form being filled out incorrectly or the voter not being a registered Democrat.
The Cabán team plans to review the ballots to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Her team remains confident that she will prevail.
“Queens voters are inspired by Tiffany Cabán’s campaign and her vision for real criminal justice reform. If every paper ballot vote is counted, we are confident we will prevail.”
The winner is expected to face GOP nominee Daniel Kogan in November.
Featured Events
59 Comments
Melinda is mm mm good!
everyone knows that “gardens watcher” is a Crowley – and team Crowley has been working hard against caban and pro Katz – as they want to put a Crowley in to replace Katz as Queens borough president !
Every “gardens watcher” post is pro-Katz , and pro-Crowley.
Don’t forget Crowley is a slimy lobbyist now , he needs influence and he needs Katz to win !
Nope Barton, Elizabeth, etc. Not a Crowley, nor his relative, nor his employee, etc. Nor a name-changing, bogus poster from JH Post like you.
The Cabán Campaign finally put out the word for its supporters not to promote conspiracy theories. You’re not helping her cause and your beef with Crowley has been stuck in your craw for at least a year.
Interesting how when Katz lost by 1200 her reaction was to demand a recount. When thousands of affidavit votes were thrown out and she went ahead by a mere 20 votes her reaction was to declare victory. This will be short lived.
If you only count 2/3 of the remaining vote and 2/3 of that sample bucked the trend by almost 25 points, then you have an unrepresentative sample and a result that cannot hold.
Finish the count!
Katz didn’t lose on election night—the race was too close to call. Cabán prematurely declared victory when there were thousands of absentee and affidavit votes to be counted. And then went on a victory lap with Ari Melber on MSNBC. There is no verified winner yet.
According to City&State, the Judge reportedly will not rule on the validity of the contested affidavit ballots (also known as the “provisional” ballots) until the manual recount of the machine ballots is completed. Plus there’s likely hundreds of machine ballots that were rejected by the machine, especially if a voter didn’t fill in the bubble properly. Some voters may have circled the bubble, some may have used a check mark, etc. This is going to take some time.
One thing is for sure: the vote tally will change again. Sit tight.
Board of Elections is corrupt, and all employees were appointed by Joe Crowley and Katz’s attorney Bolz ! They collected the absentee ballots ! Crooked til the end – Crowley, Bolz, Reich – all became multi-millionaires by controlling surrogates court in Queens – they need Katz to win-
Board of Elections in Queens controlled by Reich and Bolz and Crowley only reason Joe Crowley got appointed to Congress and stayed for 20 years – they kept all opponents off the ballot ! Their years of criminal election fraud should be investigated.
Caban’s decisive lead is insurmountable while Katz’ dozen vote lead simply is not. What has happened is a cynical exercise of gamesmanship by a party machine that will be rightfully dismantled when Caban’s lead is re-established. And if Katz improbably keeps her 25% lead among affidavit and absentee voters, it still won’t stop the progressive wave. There are violins playing at your establishment fundraisers. Look around you, the small band of insiders desperately trying to cling to power are really just marking the end of their era. You’re being replaced by millenials. It’s not the end of the world, it’s time catching up. Practice acceptance. Rest. Savor the memories of your youth and appreciate that others have taken the mantle to repair the egregious mistakes of the boomer generation. Reform is upon us.
Face reality: Albany makes the laws in NYS, not the DA.
And your point is? I’m sure it’s not about the cohort of progressive young legislators, some from Queens, reforming the laws incoming DA will enforce. Oops? I jest, partially, but maybe find other things to think about.
Count all the votes. Let them fall where they may. But who’s counting? Crowley appointees and Katz allies?
Suspicious…
Dems are saying they can’t be trusted. Vote republican in the general election.
If Katz does win, a lot of people will believe the recount was fixed. Absentee ballots usually mirror the election results but somehow Katz made up an over 1,000 vote difference in a few thousand paper ballots. It’s like the powers that be decided Caban was too radical and too inexperienced to be D.A. so they took it from her. If she doesn’t raise holy heck over this then they will have made a deal with her and she will get something else in the future.
Absentee ballots tend to be older voters. Or corporate professionals who may have been traveling on business. Not improbable that a good majority of them didn’t vote for Cabán.
The absentee ballots were opened in front of scores of witnesses and lawyers from both sides. So NOBODY “took it from her.” Cabán prematurely declared victory and that’s on her. It’s irresponsible to cry “fixed” when you have NO proof of that.
The Democratic Party voters are “the powers that be.” Not any “Machine.” And if you weren’t a properly registered member of the Democratic Party, you were not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary.
No matter what the outcome is we should continue the talk of legalizing sex work in NYC. Hope that goes through, enough is enough with the police raiding massage parlors and arresting sex workers after they get a freebie. Legalization protects sex workers from police abuse.
The “sex workers” want to be decriminalized, but not legalized, right? In other words, “Don’t arrest me, but don’t make me legal”, cause…why?
Okay so the election was stolen as I predicted – Now Tif Caban run as an independant.
If this result holds, the Board of Elections needs to be criminally investigated. Caban should hold firm and fight for the affidavit ballots that got tossed.
Great news!
Just bought a pallet of popcorn as Costco
glad Katz won. what a huge sigh of relief. hope everyone enjoyed the fireworks on 47th ave and 37th street. it had a stunning show last night. it felt like the entire local neighborhood came out to watch. it was spectacular. i think this was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for this community in queens. not even van bramer would have done anything this nice for the people. i’m sure it cost a pretty penny since the fireworks had to come from out of town, as it lasted for at least 2 hours. all the folks came out to enjoy. its too bad we have no green space parks in the area.
post it on a different comment
I want to see justice and fairness for all not stupidity and reverse racism. I hope this holds. Eliminating bail for all crimes is a stupid idea. If you don’t want to go to jail don’t commit the crime.
Reverse racism doesn’t exist. It’s all just racism. You should look that word up
>Eliminating bail for all crimes is a stupid idea
Right, that’s why no one has ever proposed it. Imagine being that gullible!
TC did propose it.
Which are the same as bail except people don’t rot in a jail cell because they’re poor.
It’s disingenuous to pretend she’s “eliminating bail for all crimes” when she effectively isn’t, people are still required to report to court, just like a cash bail. It’s 90% effective.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/when-it-comes-to-pretrial-release-few-other-jurisdictions-do-it-dcs-way/2016/07/04/
Appearance bonds? That must have been in the fine print somewhere.
Wow, the fact that you had NO idea that she proposed appearance bonds really explains why you were so gullible and wrong.
It’s literally mentioned in this article lmao. Try reading it.
Your link doesn’t work.
You probably don’t either.
Where’s it mentioned on her website about appearance bonds?
Good point, you didn’t even TRY to challenge the fact that you were completely wrong about appearance bonds, but you pretended anyway. It’s IN the article! ?
But when you said bad things about a URL it was a great argument.
I bet the 19 who disagreed were blacks or Hispanics who think everyone arrested was a setup.
STOP COMMITTING CRIME!
It’s all so tiresome.
This should be good.
Yes, I’m glad I voted for Melinda!
Milliseconds might mmm good!
I said Katz would win
#cabanlostgetoverithipsters
Nowadays old people like you are supposed to blame millennials for all their problems.
We’re bringing it back. Get over it.
unless they are parodying how Trump voters don’t have an original thoughts
How do you know that person is old? Could be younger than you. Your prejudice is showing.
Thank goodness Caban who has “spent her entire career as a public defender” has lost!..Her 4 years of legal experience in no way qualifies her to lead a team of prosocuters and detectives..Her socialist agenda is another story
Trump had exactly zero days as president, you’re saying that makes him unfit for office?!
You are undoubtedly a prime example of the failure of the NYC school system
Why does Caban need more experience than the president?
Leave Trump out of this. False narrative. Deal with the valid point Arvin raised. Queens voters aren’t that gullible!
Caban actually had experience in her field. Our game show host had zero days experience.
And he still beat your self appointed queen. 2 totally different stories , but the “ what about that person over there “ narrative continues to be drummed. The 2 elections had nothing to do with each other. I know it kills you you can’t blame this on Trump somehow, Carbie.
I was sure you wouldn’t have a single reason why she needs more experience than the president.
Here’s your 2 different stories:
1. a game show host with no experience loses the vote and becomes president
2. a queens DA with experience loses the vote
So it’s more important for a city DA to have experience than the PRESIDENT?
Surely you criticized his lack of experience too? lmao!
Exactly!
Great News!!!
The extreme left is finally stopped!
Thank God. Let’s hope this holds. Katz is not qualified, but Caban would be a nightmare.
Thank goodness. i was beginning to lose hope that Queens was running short on sensible people.
I knew it all along..I’m a Republican by the way….Let’s see if it stands….
> I’m a Republican by the way
Yeah…know lmao
Earlier in the day before the final vote was completed, the Queens Eagle reported that “Cabán’s campaign has called people who submitted affidavits to find out who they voted for.” Plus their lawsuit insists that each Paper Ballot AND the accompanying envelope be photocopied.
Seems like an Outrageous invasion of privacy!
The Queens Eagle? Is that a person?
How come the Lawyer Cabán, declared victory on election night, knowing that there were thousands of absentee ballots to still be counted? And then, when they were counted and she loses she cries foul, blaming it on the MACHINE. There are many Dems who voted for Katz. Please don’t refer to us as the machine. In a Democracy one person, one vote.Am sure she learned that in LAW 101! And WHY are they looking at each person’s absentee ballot to make their name public? She’s a sore loser. My Lady thou doth protesteth too much!
As I said from the get go, count all the votes y’all.