Twitter Has a Field Day as NYC Board of Elections Admits Stunning ‘Error’ in Ballot Tabulations
The New York Democratic mayoral primary has become a Big Apple-sized shitshow.
On Tuesday, the city’s beleaguered Board of Elections released new tallies showing that former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia had dramatically narrowed the lead of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. The results tabulated were from the first set of ranked choice voting results, in what is the first time the city has used RCV. Final results aren’t expected until the end of the month.
Then came an unexpected turn. The Board of Elections removed the tallies from its website, and tweeted that there had been a discrepancy. As elections guru Dave Wasserman noted, “something’s very wrong.”
If @BOENYC‘s unofficial tallies from *both* 6/23 and today are to be believed, these are how the 142,005 newly added 1st-choice votes broke down:
Adams 12.3%
Yang 11.6%
Write-ins 11.4%
Taylor 10.6%
Donovan 9.3%
Garcia 8.2%
Wright 8.2%
Wiley 6.8%Umm…something’s very wrong.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) June 30, 2021
As it turns out, election workers forgot to remove tens of thousands of test ballots from the system before putting real ballots through the RCV tabulator.
The @BOENYC forgot to take out tens of thousands of practice ballots out of the system before running the RCV simulation today, which resulted in the “discrepancies.”
— Juan Manuel Benítez (@JuanMaBenitez) June 30, 2021
Did they leave De Blasio’s pizza ballot in there, too? Was wondering why so many write-ins for green peppers.
— Renato (@H_Sounds) June 30, 2021
The Board of Elections issued a statement Tuesday evening, which explained the situation, though the last sentence seemed to be missing a word.
The Board issued a corrected statement – strangely in a different font – amid intense Twitter mockery of the day’s proceedings, or should we say, regressions.
BOE about to go on IG Live next https://t.co/KbHMvdN3BF
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 30, 2021
statement from the NYC board of elections: pic.twitter.com/O2p3CUyDyy
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) June 30, 2021
OK we keep saying this but after this we ABSOLUTELY MUST completely clear house at the NYC BOE. Some of the worst-administered elections in the country and that is saying something. https://t.co/Ejcorp3KfI
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 30, 2021
Even if @BOENYC releases “corrected” RCV totals tomorrow, this is still baffling. https://t.co/5QkI1qhkTz
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) June 30, 2021
This is fine dot gif https://t.co/jQKmmx1X5e
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 30, 2021
NYC Board of Elections https://t.co/fZtvQOPQe0
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) June 30, 2021
Some will blame ranked choice voting for whatever chaos ensues in the NYC mayoral election results. But it’s worth remembering that the Board of Elections there has a history of incompetence and worse long before #RCV. https://t.co/V8Oy1sKYHo
— Scott Shafer (@scottshafer) June 30, 2021
Please standby for a statement from NYC Board of Elections Chairman Mr. Bean
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) June 30, 2021
In a statement, the NYC Board of Elections says that Gondor has no king and Gondor needs no king
— Matt Ford (@fordm) June 30, 2021
The nyc board of elections has apparently resorted to posting a notes app screenshot so I assume things continue to go swimmingly over there lol https://t.co/WK9dfyHrGy
— Austin Sanders (@daustinsanders) June 30, 2021
