NYC Mayoral Candidate Kathryn Garcia Tells CNN She Sees No Evidence of Anything Fraudulent Going On
New York City mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia calmly shot down any electoral malfeasance or impropriety suggestions during a Wednesday morning appearance on CNN’s New Day.
It was the first time many will have seen the former New York City Sanitation Commissioner on cable news. Her booking was timely, given the crazy events that unfolded on Tuesday surrounding the Democratic primary.
The New York City Board of Elections rolled out a new ranked-choice voting system for the mayoral primary race earlier this month. On Tuesday released preliminary results that caused a rather significant shockwave in political circles.
The early results showed Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who had previously been considered a heavy favorite based on early polling, only 16,000 votes ahead of Sanitation Department Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, with roughly 125,000 absentee ballots uncounted. The Board of Elections data release incorrectly listed Maya Wiley as “eliminated,” which they later deleted. But that wasn’t the least of the mistakes.
As the Adams campaign pointed out, there was a discrepancy in total votes listed, which the Board of Elections eventually noted was a mistake in ballot counting. It turns out that the BOE did not remove roughly 140,000 test ballots before the actual votes were counted, which they revealed via a statement.
Displaying the glow of someone who just received terrific news, Garcia was by turns calm, graceful, and generous in spirit to her fellow candidates still very much in the race, including Adams and Maya Wiley.
Erica Hill tried to get her guest to connect yesterday’s Board of Election gaffe with past allegations of malfeasance, noting “there have been several missteps over the years. What do you think may have contributed to this one in particular?”
“We will not know for a while what exactly happened, but it seems like just a mistake,” Garcia replied. “Someone forgot to clear the computer before they put the real data in. So that seems like we should be paying a little bit closer attention.”
“Are you concerned at all about the integrity of the vote?” Hill later continued. “There has been so much discussion over the past year, frankly, and so lies have been pushed about voting in this country. What does this do?”
“I am concerned that it undermines people’s confidence,” Garcia replied, but politely pushed back on any suggestion of actual fraud.
“There is no one on my team, or where we’ve been doing observations of the opening of ballots, that gives us concern that there is something fraudulent happening at all,” she continued. “But we need to make sure that the vote is protected and that we get the result that new yorkers went to the polls or mailed in at the end of the day.”
Hill asked Garcia if she had a message for Eric Adams, who was, until yesterday afternoon, thought to be the presumptive next mayor of New York City. “We’re all going to have to have patience,” Garcia replied. “But Eric and Maya, we are all in the mix as we move towards the final count, and I will be absolutely supportive of whoever the Democratic nominee is. I hope it’s me, but I will be absolutely supportive so that we can unify this city.”
Watch above via CNN.
