Queens District Attorney candidates Melinda Katz and Tiffany Cabán. (Melinda Katz/Tiffany Caban)
July 5, 2019 By Laura Hanrahan
Tiffany Cabán and Melinda Katz are set to face off yet again, this time in Queens County Supreme Court.
The pair will head to court on Tuesday to determine the validity of 114 disputed ballots that were not counted since voters didn’t clearly state their party affiliation.
The ruling could change the result, since Katz had a lead of just 16 votes on Friday.
The court battle is just another phase in an election saga that has seen Cabán’s 1,100-vote election-night lead evaporate. The election swung in Katz’ favor on Wednesday after a manual count of affidavit and absentee ballots was conducted by the NYC Board of Elections. By Wednesday night, Katz was 20 votes ahead in a stunning reversal.
This morning the BOE began re-reviewing several affidavit ballots at the request of Cabán’s team.
The BOE ruled that six of those ballots could be counted. Five votes went to Cabán and one went to Katz, bringing the Borough President’s lead down to just 16 votes.
The court will review the 114 disputed ballots next week. Cabán’s team believes that these votes should be counted.
On Tuesday, the BOE will also begin its manual recount of the 85,000 votes that were cast on election day. BOE workers will go through every ballot that was cast at more than 700 voting machines.
The recount was automatically triggered since Katz’ lead is less than 0.5 percent of the vote.
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26 Comments
It’s very obvious that Board of Elections in Queens is corrupt and has been for decades – soapy Cabán supporters are telling stories of how they tried to vote but were turned away by BOE workers – the attorneys for Katz control the BOE, hired all the employees there – they are trying to steal election from Caban so they can keep their corrupt power in Queens , and in Queens courts , where they also control the judges . Queens is like a communist dictatorship run by the corrupt party machine.
The Board of Elections staff is bi-partisan — it consists of Democrats and Republicans. Each recount table has a Democrat and a Republican worker, in addition to people from both the Cabán and Katz campaigns. Plus the lawyers for both camps and other public observers are in the room each day of the recount. And the media is watching and reporting too.
On top of that, the Judge overseeing the recount was brought in from Brooklyn and is a gubernatorial appointee. He is not a puppet.
So you and your conspiracy friends are just spreading lies and sowing mistrust in our election process and in the government in general. Maybe you’re from one of those communist dictatorship countries?
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.
One thing is for sure: the vote tally will change again. This is going to take some time to sort it out.
City and State should not be considered neutral. Their reporter wrote negative stories about Ocasio-Cortez and pro-Crowley, and she was asked to leave. The fact is Bolz, Reich , Joe Crowley’s attorney are working for Katz for free, to try steal election for her. Why else would they do that?
Wow. Not only sowing mistrust of the election and the electeds, but now the media. That is, unless Cabán wins, right?
make sure they count the gang members votes!
What are the odds?
Restorative Justice
= Legalized
Prostitution ?
No thanks !
Queens will become
the Semen Depository of NYS …
No thanks !
Richie V
The Rabid Activist
of Jackson Hts
You’ll be shocked to learn that prostitutes ALREADY exist
I believe if election night found Katz the winner, she would have done the same thing Caban did. I also believe, that the system is broken because of the Queens County Democratic leaders and the BOE. Look, I doubt the people wanted either of these two ladies to run. Katz has no experience for the job and no one knew Caban before the election. The entire system is a joke and it is time people start voting for parties and person’s not affiliated with the Democrats or Republicans.
I hope this happens soon and we the people are bo longer burdened by the trash either parties give us to vote for.
I think that Katz should win primary, Caban is not qualify to become the new District Attorney to replace the late District Attorney Brown, she’s a Defence attorney not a Prosecutor which is what we need, her thinking is not the people of Queens which it should be
She at least has related experience in her field.
Our billionaire president had zero experience, and he only lost by millions of votes.
Why would we hold a Queens DA to a higher standard than the PRESIDENT?
All I know is that when I went to vote for Caban in College Point , the old white lady worker mislead me into checking some bubble that when I consulted with another worker before I voted I was not supossed to fill out .
The “old white lady worker?” Sounds fishy. Although I doubt this actually happened, your ageist, racist, sexist comment is very telling. “Checking some bubble” instead of filling it in? Someone is doing their best to sow discord and mistrust in this election.
You voted for the grab-em-by-the-pussy-president because you support women right?! lmao
Sorry Mr. Sarcastic. Not a Trump lover and didn’t vote for him.
This race is not about Trump even though you keep dragging him into every story.
Cat fight !
They should settle it in a boxing ring ( foxy boxing )
or mud wrestling.
They should both be declared winners !
And the drama begins
They are all winners
Comments on these articles usually turn out well
What a joke. First Caban declares victory with 6,400 uncounted votes and balls at the fact that Katz won’t concede. The it turns out that Katz wins (by a incredibly small margin, but still pulls ahead). Then Caban can’t handle it and demands that all of the invalid ballots count. Then to make matters worse she picks 114 ballots and demands that this count towards her. What a joke and what kind of precedent does this set? Is Katz allowed to go in and pick her own ballots now too? Ha! If this were a serious election then one of them would just run as an independent and the we can really see who has more votes in the general election. This is a joke. Frankly, Caban is a joke.
Katz is actually a joke. She is not even an attorney and was appointed by the democratic corrupt Queens machine – they rigged absentee ballots – only reason she will won a if she does.
Wrong info Joe. Katz has a law degree from St. John’s, and is an attorney.
She was elected by the voters of Queens to her current position of Queens Borough President in 2013, and was re-elected in 2017. Not appointed.
No one “rigged absentee ballots” either. There are rules that govern how to file an absentee ballot, and those ballots were opened in front of teams of lawyers and witnesses from both camps last Wednesday.
What happen to the unhinged conspiracy theories the Trump lovers had about Caban?! Didn’t George Soros force her to become DA?
Odd that all just completely went away when Katz got the lead…