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 these 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.
