Board of Elections 'Discrepancy' Puts Mayoral Primary Vote in Disarray

[bearsfootball516]

Source: New York Times

The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos on Tuesday night after the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary, and then, several hours later, removed the tabulations from its website while citing a “discrepancy.”

The results released earlier in the day had suggested that the race between Eric Adams and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly.

But just a few hours after releasing the results, the elections board issued a mysterious tweet revealing a “discrepancy” in the report, saying that it was working with its “technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred.”

The discrepancy was related to the “difference in votes cast” between what was disclosed on primary night and the results released on Tuesday, according to a Board of Elections official.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/nyregion/adams-garcia-wiley-mayor-ranked-choice.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

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Basically, you know those ranked choice votes that were released earlier today? They may be inaccurate due to a mistake from the New York Board of Elections.

Link to tweet

?s=21

[Polybius]

1. Hopefully the "discrepancy" means that the race hasn't tightened nearly as much as reported

Eric Adams all the way.

[oldsoftie]

2. I agree. Only real choice for NYC to try to get a grip.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. I think this may be their first go at "ranked choice" voting?

If so, I can see where glitches in dealing with that can happen.

[bearsfootball516]

4. It is, yeah.

And ranked choice voting usually goes pretty well. The NYC Board of Elections has a history of messing these things up.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Okay

I know states like Maine (awhile ago) and California have done it. I can see how doing something like that in the old and entrenched political turf-battle NYC (between Boroughs) could run into... ahem... "issues".

ETA - congrats on the 6K posts!

[bearsfootball516]

6. Thank you! Was super excited to hit it yesterday!!

[frazzled]

7. Ranked choice has never been used in such a big city

and not, I believe, with 13 candidates running for the same office. It's very different for races in smaller populations with maybe 2 or 3 or 4 candidates on the ballot.

The biggest problem, to me, is transparency. People can understand (and trust) hard numbers: candidate X gets this many votes (and/or percentage of total), candidate Y another number of votes (and a percentage of total). A simple recount can resolve any disputes.

With a complex ranked-choice contest, the mathematics are obscured to the public, and we'll get more and more distrust of the outcomes. And that is NOT a good thing for our democracy. I'm kind of glad that this is a clusterf**k. I don't want ranked choice to become the norm. I can't even imagine this being used nationally for, say, a Democratic primary across all the states.

[JohnSJ]

9. I agree. I also despise open Democratic primaries. It allow non-Democrats to choose who the

Democratic nominee will be.

When Lipinski beat Newman in 2018, it was because of cross-over republican votes in an open Democratic primary in the Illinois district. It serves as perfect example of the double edged sword open primaries present.

[JohnSJ]

10. I am not a ranked choice voting fan, but this was due to human error with dummy ballots, not

because of "ranked voting" per se

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Well that's why I was thinking that the "first go" would definitely not be "glitch free"

Meaning the fact that "test data" was still in the system and not purged, underscores the newness and seems pretty standard for an "oops" when rolling out a new data system into production.

California, obviously the largest state in the U.S. in terms of population, has been able to do it (although I'm not sure how it went initially - probably all kinds of issues). And in the case of California, they had to deal with 58 counties and their elections boards, so a bit more complex than what NYC had to deal with.

[JohnSJ]

12. It isn't state wide here in California. Depends on the city, and our Open Jungle primary

system, is a confusing mess for some offices

In the last Senate election there were 30 plus candidates in that race, and the ballot was really something

In our last recall election for Governor there were around 100 candidates if the recall was successful, many making a joke out of it from porn stars to celebrities. It was a mess

Fortunately, this recall doesn’t have as many candidates this time, though our Secretary of State screwed up and didn’t list Newsom as a Democrat. He is suing to change that inept error so the ballot reflects him as a Democrat

On the other hand California goes out of there way to insure every vote is counted, including absentee ballots, regardless if there is a projected winner or not, which is why the final vote can take several weeks

[BumRushDaShow]

13. LOL

I would still think that is still more complex than NYC's first run though and there have been a couple cycles in CA now.

It makes me wonder if that whole process was an attempt to address the crying foul by multiple "non-major party" candidates who wanted to get into a primary somehow.

I don't like it as an "open primary" mechanism (nor do I like "open primaries" in general as a primary should be an "internal party" function).

And yeah, every major population center is going to take weeks to get every vote counted - including provisionals, which take the longest to resolve/reconcile. We went through that here in Philly under the spotlighted magnifying glass during the 2020 general.

[JohnSJ]

14. +++

[electric_blue68]

15. When I came of voting age (18 in '71) in NYC the primaries were closed...

I actually wanted to be an Independent because while I mostly supported Democrats when I was too young to vote - there were 2 times when the the Liberal Republicans were better on Social Issues than the more conservative Democratic candidates - Mayor John V Lindsey ('69), and later Charles Goodel (yes, father of that Goodel).

So I wanted that option - just on case.
I was miffed at the time I was told I had to chose. So
of course, I chose to be a Democrat. Little could I have known at the time how the Republicans would change!


This is from Channel 7 Buffalo, NY Feb 2020
I had no idea that this had even happened. (I don't know whether it went into effect for '20, maybe '21? . Sorry will check and revise if needed)

"New York recently approved new laws that allows voters to change their party, earlier, ahead of a primary. Voters affiliated to a party can change 60 days before a primary. Independent voters can change 25 days before a primary."

[JohnSJ]

8. Over 135000 test were counted that should not have been included

Last edited Wed Jun 30, 2021, 08:50 AM - Edit history (1)

"The NYC Board of Elections takes down mayor ranked choice voting results after revealing 'discrepancy'

"...the Board of Elections said in a statement on Twitter that it was aware of "a discrepancy" in the report and was investigating. It later said Tuesday's initial release included test ballots, which caused the discrepancy."

abcnews.go.com/Politics/eric-adams-1st-choice-lead-york-mayoral-primary/story?id=78557261

"The vote total just released by the Board of Elections is 100,000-plus more than the total announced on election night, raising serious questions," Adams said in a statement Tuesday following the release of the since-pulled report. "We have asked the Board of Elections to explain such a massive increase and other irregularities before we comment on the Ranked Choice Voting projection."

"Following Adams' comments, the Board of Elections said in a statement on Twitter that it was aware of "a discrepancy" in the report and was investigating. It later said Tuesday's initial release included test ballots, which caused the discrepancy."

It is interesting that some people immediately jumped, saying Adams was playing the trump card when his team initially pointed out the vote discrepancy. However, it seems that Adams was correct.

This was not even comparable to the trump lie, where after multiple recounts and audits, the 2020 election was confirmed to be one of the most secure and accurate elections. What happened in NY was an obvious human error. There was no such error in the 2020 election. In fact one of the best non-analytical arguments against the trump lie were the Congressional seats gained by republicans in 2020.

[electric_blue68]

16. Oh, maaaan, I can't believe I missed most of this! ...

I caught the initial (erroneous) announcement.
Maaaaaybe the beginning of Adam's campaign peeping up. That was it for me yesterday

So I turn one of my favorite WNYC Public Radio hosts
at 10AM today...

He was soooo embarrassed for us (our city) !
"...and now it's being covered by CNN ... it's become National News...
even International...people in ?_______; people in Sidney, Australia are finding out..."
(close approximation)


Oh, boy.

[Bayard]

17. Rethuglicans will love it

See!? We told you!

[clementine613]

18. Once again, Repukes try to suppress voting, this time....

... by messing up the vote tabulations. And, of course, no one is going to hold them responsible.