NYC Comptroller Ranked-Choice Results: Lander Holds Narrow Lead

NEW YORK CITY — Brad Lander kept a lead over his City Council colleague Corey Johnson in the race for city comptroller, according to preliminary ranked-choice voting tallies released Tuesday.

But Johnson appeared to close a significant gap in first-choice votes from last week.

Lander had 51.7 percent of votes after 10 rounds of ranked-choice voting counts, compared to Johnson's 48.3 percent, the preliminary results show.

With 130,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted on July 6, the race is tighter than it looked June 22, when Lander had a 9-point lead over Johnson.

Still, Lander's campaign manager Chris Walsh claimed a "strong lead."

"We are confident that the outstanding votes will widen our lead, and that Brad will be the next New York City Comptroller," Walsh said in a statement.

"It's clear that the broad, diverse coalition we built around the city showed up for @bradlander's message of a just recovery that works for all our neighborhoods."

"We are confident that the outstanding voted will widen our lead." pic.twitter.com/iquZC77dTR
— Naomi Dann (@naomi_dann) June 29, 2021

Johnson, by contrast, declared the race too close to call.

"With tens of thousands of absentee ballots left to be counted and ranked, I'm encouraged to see we are closing the gap and have a path to victory," he said.

The numbers released by the @BOENYC make one thing clear: this race is too close to call.

Let’s make sure every vote is counted. My statement: pic.twitter.com/srOjB7dsJf
— Corey Johnson (@CoreyinNYC) June 29, 2021