NYC Mayoral Ranked-Choice Results: Garcia Closes In On Adams

NEW YORK CITY — Eric Adams held a slim, 16,000-vote lead in the Democratic mayoral primary after eagerly awaited ranked-choice voting results were released Tuesday.

But the results are far from final and Kathryn Garcia, the second-place finisher after 11 rounds, could conceivably close the gap when 125,000 absentee ballots are counted July 6.

The results could indicate a final tight race between Adams and Garcia, who has stressed patience as officials go through the new ranked-choice voting process.

"Even with today’s ranked choice report we are still waiting for more than 120,000 absentee ballots to be counted and we are confident about a path to victory," Garcia said in a statement. "Once all the votes are counted, I know everyone will support the Democratic nominee and that’s exactly what I intend to do. We look forward to the final results. Democracy is worth waiting for.”

Today @BOENYC is set to release the first, preliminary round of RCV results. This will give us a snapshot – a fuller but still incomplete picture of the final results. This race isn't over & there are still 124K+ absentee ballots to count. Let's be patient. Democracy is worth it.
— Kathryn Garcia (@KGforNYC) June 29, 2021

The race to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio is New York City's first wide experience with ranked-choice voting.

Voters under the system ranked their top five candidates in order of preference.

But the first results released June 22 only counted first-choice votes, which showed Adams with a wide lead at 31.66 percent, followed by Maya Wiley at 22.22 and Garcia at 19.48 percent.

Adams acted as a front-runner from Election Night onward, even as he acknowledged that the results are far from settled.

"But there's something else we know: that New York City said our first choice is Eric Adams," he said that night.

The city's Board of Elections tallied up on Tuesday tallied voters' second- through fifth-choice preferences and conducted rounds of ranked-choice voting, eliminating candidates and allocating their votes to those who remained.

The preliminary results went through 11 rounds of votes, through which Adams' lead narrowed.

Wiley was eliminated after 10 rounds of votes, coming roughly 3,800 votes behind Garcia, who picked up a significant chunk of Andrew Yang votes, according to the preliminary results.

• Adams — 324,571 votes (40.9 percent)
• Garcia — 236,146 votes (29.8 percent)
• Wiley — 232,340 (29.3 percent)

Wiley, in a statement, indicated the race isn't over.

"Democracy, as John Lewis said, is an act," she said. "And New York City residents engaged in one of the central acts of democracy! They voted. And they acted when they chose overwhelmingly to adopt ranked-choice voting. I said on election night, we must allow the democratic process to continue and count every vote so that New Yorkers have faith in our democracy and government. And we must all support its results."

The preliminary round 11 results also show a narrow contest between Adams and Garcia.

• Adams — 368,898 (51.1 percent)
• Garcia — 352,990 (48.9 percent)

Board of Elections workers will repeat the process July 6 with the remaining 125,000 absentee ballots. Final results could be released July 12.

Go through all 11 rounds of ranked-choice voting here.