Election Law: Ballots

The votes cast in last week’s primary elections have been counted and the unofficial results have been published. When a race is too close to call, it remains undecided pending the count of all other non-scanned hand counted ballots including emergency ballots, absentee ballots, affidavit ballots, special ballots, and military ballots. The non-scanned ballots are reviewed by the Board of Elections for the district in which the election is held and any ballots deemed invalid by the Board are disqualified and invalidated. In many cases, the final official results will not differ from the unofficial election night results. In other cases, like last week’s Democratic party primary election for the office of Queens County District Attorney, the outcome of an election hinges on the post-election night tally of these additional ballots.

Next, we'll look at these ballots, the audit process and court proceedings to ensure a free and fair election.