While the New York City Primary Election is happening right now, the official results won’t be in until at least July 12, according to the Board of Elections. However, preliminary unofficial results will be available as soon as tonight.
The initial preliminary unofficial results will only include ballots cast during early voting and on election day. Absentee ballots will not be a part of the initial tally.
The introduction of ranked-choice voting has created a new wrinkle when it comes to the timeline. Only voters’ first-choice will be counted immediately. BOE plans to count the rest of the votes on June 29, but those will also only include early voting and election day ballots.
Until then, the Campaign Finance Board is preaching patience.
“With Ranked Choice Voting, we will be getting our results from the Board of Elections in a new way,” said CFB Spokesperson Matthew Sollars. “This will take cooperation from everyone involved, including the media and candidates, to respect the counting process and to accurately reflect the unofficial nature of vote tallies until the BOE declares an official winner.”
They also plan to release updates on the absentee ballots one week after that on July 6. Complete results should be available by July 12, per BOE, but there is no set date. An official result will be made when every vote is counted.
“Right now, we’re at a little over 80,000 absentee ballots,” said BOE Spokesperson Valerie Vazquez on Monday night.
This story first appeared on PoliticsNY.com.
