NYC Democratic mayoral primary may not be decided for weeks

[brooklynite]

New York Daily News

Once the polls are closed, the Board of Elections is expected to release unofficial results for first-choice selections, a data dump that could reveal the likely winner. Or maybe not.

Those results won’t include absentee ballots — more than 218,000 have already been sent out, according to the Board of Elections — and they won’t factor in ranked-choice elimination rounds that will follow if no candidate in the crowded Democratic primary wins a majority of first-choice votes.

When the candidate with the fewest first-place votes is knocked out, voters who selected him or her as their top choice have their second-choice votes distributed to the remaining contenders. The process repeats until only two candidates remain. At that point, the hopeful with more votes wins.

Absentee ballots can continue to stream in until June 29, a week after they must be postmarked, and a final official count won’t start until July 12, according to the Board of Elections. The scheduling gaps will allow for the return of absentee ballots so voters who made technical errors can correct them.

[PoliticAverse]

1. "a final official count won't start until July 12" n/t

[brooklynite]

2. I've heard that, despite all the ballots being scanned, the RCV processing will be by hand.

If so, you'll wait even longer for the same ballots to be processed for City Comptroller, Borough President and Council. "State" offices are on a separate ballot sheet.