COVID-19 has upended just about everything in our lives. It was no different in New York’s primary election this past Tuesday. Since so many mail-in ballots were requested, we’re not going to know which Democrat was victorious in the 12th Congressional District until next week.
In a rematch from the 2018 primary, challenger Suraj Patel is behind longtime East Side Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney by just 648 votes. In the district, which covers sections of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, Maloney collected 16,473 votes (41%) to 15,825 votes for Patel (40%). Patel is one of several progressive challengers who performed well on Tuesday evening, taking on entrenched establishment political figures. He beat Maloney in Queens and Brooklyn, while she prevailed in Manhattan.
109,000 voters requested absentee ballots. 79,000 of them came from Manhattan, where Maloney is strongest, so her campaign has expressed confidence about ultimately prevailing. Patel has filed a lawsuit requesting court supervision of the counting. Two other candidates, Lauren Ashcroft and Peter Harrison, were on the ballot but only collected about 7,000 votes combined. If you’d like to see the neighborhood breakdown, have a look at the is map prepared by Steven Romalewski at CUNY’s Center for Urban Research:
FWIW, a map of #NY12 primary results, based only on votes cast at polling sites, omitting absentee ballots (of which there are many). pic.twitter.com/oDjas0CRIW
— Steven Romalewski (@SR_spatial) June 24, 2020
Depending on where you live on the Lower East Side, you may be represented by Nydia Velazquez rather than Carolyn Maloney. No final result in this race either until next week. But Velazquez has a big lead in the 7th Congressional District. She’s pulled in about 73% of the vote compared to 17% for Paperboy Love Prince, her rather unconventional challenger.
At the state level, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou is well ahead in the 65th Assembly District with 4,440 votes (56%) to 2,741 votes (35%) for Grace Lee.
We’ll report back when results in all of these races are final.
