Former cop Eric Adams is leading Democratic primary and on track to become mayor of New York

Old cop Eric Adams He is set to become the next mayor of New York, after the publication of new electoral results of the Democratic primary which confirm him in the head, after a thorough and complicated examination for the first of the multiple ballot.

President of the Borough of Brooklyn, 60, Adams claimed victory after the electoral council announced he was one percentage point ahead of his closest rival, moderate Kathryn Garcia.

The Election Commission website showed Adams with 50.5%, with 403,000 votes, and Garcia, a 51-year-old former sanitation commissioner, in second place with 49.5%, with nearly 395,000 votes.

The board of directors did not specify the number of votes remaining to be counted. Final official results aren’t expected until mid-July, but Adams has been awarded by The Associated Press.. However, García has still not acknowledged his defeat and several local media have remained cautious.

“While there are still a very small number of votes to count, the results are clear: a historic and diverse five-county coalition led by working-class New Yorkers led us to victory in the Democratic primary in New York City Hall, “he added. Adams said in a statement.

If the results are confirmed, Adams will face Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the November municipal election. With 86% Democrats among New Yorkers affiliated with a party, it is assumed that the winner of these primaries will be victorious in the November 2 election and will succeed Bill de Blasio, in power since 2014 and currently extremely unpopular.

The winner must propel the Big Apple into its post-pandemic recovery.

New voting system

the long review, which began after polling day on July 22, was also not without controversy, after the Electoral Council admitted on June 29, after the preliminary results were announced, that it had mistakenly counted 135,000 ballots. vote, which triggered criticism against this body, whose modus operandi has been questioned for years by politicians and activists.

For these elections, a new voting system was launched, which allows voters to choose up to five candidates in order of preference.

After a first count in which only the first option marked on the ballots was examined and in which no candidate obtained the advantage necessary to be the winner, the Council proceeded last Tuesday to a first count taking into account the rest of the preferences expressed by voters.

In this second review, Adams stayed ahead with a 14,755 advantage over Garcia. A gap that García nearly halved after the mail-in ballots opened, but it seems they weren’t enough to wrest the victory from the Brooklyn president.

Adams has a platform focusing on public safety following an upsurge in crime in New York, as in most major cities in the United States, since last summer.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

KEEP READING: