Harlem City Council Results: Perkins, Levine Defend Seats, District 8 Too Close To Call

Update 11 a.m.: Winners for two of three Harlem City Council primaries were declared Tuesday. The race for District 8, which spans East Harlem and the South Bronx, remains too close to call and neither candidate conceded.

Diana Ayala and State Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez are separated by 122 votes with 97 percent of the vote counted, according to the city board of elections. Ayala declared victory late Tuesday night, but Rodriguez has not conceded the race.

Bill Perkins has defended his seat in District 9, which covers much of Central Harlem, the New York Times and New York 1 reported. Perkins, a long-time member of the Harlem political establishment, recently won the seat in a special election after serving Harlem in the state senate. With 92 percent of the vote counted Perkins has captured roughly 49 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the New York City Board of Elections. Challengers Marvin Holland and Cordell Cleare followed with roughly 20 percent and 17 percent of the vote respectively, according to the BOE. Tyson Lord-Gray captured about 8 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results.

Mark Levine handily defeated challenger Thomas Lopez-Pierre in District Seven. With 98 percent of the vote counted, Levine has captured about 74 percent of the vote compared to Lopez-Pierre's 25 percent.

Original article below:

HARLEM, NY — Primary elections for local offices in New York City's will be held Tuesday Sept. 12, meaning that party-affiliated voters get to select which candidates they want to represent their party in the general election in November.

New York City is a Democratic stronghold, meaning whichever candidate claims the Democratic nomination during the primaries often wins the general by a landslide. So if you're registered to vote, don't wait until November's contests.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. Patch will update this article as results are released.

Harlem is represented by three different city council districts, all of which have contested primary elections. The elections feature a well-known incumbent attempting to defend a seat he won this year during a special election, a race to fill the seat of outgoing council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and a two-person race marred by ugly rhetoric.

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Don't know anything about the candidates running for city council in your district? Don't worry, Patch has you covered. Check out Patch's voting guides for council district seven, district eight and district nine. If you're interested in learning about citywide elections for offices such as the mayor, public advocate and comptroller check out this election guide by Patch.

City council districts are often oddly-shaped and many New Yorkers probably can't name which district they live in off the top of their heads. There are polling places across each council district; your specific one depends on where you live. To find your polling place, click here and enter your address.

New York City's primaries are also organized by party affiliation — sorry independent voters. Only voters registered as Democrats or Republicans can vote in the respective primary elections. After entering your address on that same website above, under "Primary Election - 09/12/2017," click "Ballot Information" then choose your party. You will see your choices for all available offices.

Experienced voters are sure to notice that the "I Voted" stickers handed out at each polling place feature new designs. More than 10,000 people voted in a campaign organized by the New York City Campaign Finance Board to select a new sticker. More than 700 designs were submitted to the board, which narrowed the vote down to 10 finalists.

Photo by Patch