Melinda Katz declares victory in district attorney’s race for third time with 55-vote lead

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has declared victory once again as the Democratic nominee for the county’s district attorney’s office on Tuesday.

On Aug. 6, court proceedings were held to review 99 ballots from a lawsuit that was brought on from Katz’s opponent in the DA’s race, public defender Tiffany Cabán.

“Today, the judge patiently spent almost 6 hours scrutinizing each of the ballots objected to during the recount, as well as the disqualified affidavit ballots. The margin has barely changed, and the results are the same for the third time,” said Matthew Rey, Katz’s campaign advisor.

 

This time Katz leads with 55 votes, according to Rey.

Cabán’s team was initially fighting to validate 114 ballots that were dismissed because they lacked a party affiliation on the ballot, but the campaign was later informed from the Board of Elections that there were at least 68 ballots invalidated for that reason.

The other ballots that were up for dispute include votes that were said to be cast at the wrong poll site, votes that were dismissed because the voters were disregarded for being unregistered or votes that were erroneously thrown out for a stray mark, according to Cabán’s campaign team last week.

“The Board of Elections and the Katz campaign are standing together to oppose our efforts to open and count ballots cast by eligible and registered voters,” said Caban’s lawyer Jerry Goldfeder last week after the BOE declared the borough president the Democratic nominee despite the pending lawsuit.

On Aug. 5, Katz’s campaign team called Cabán’s efforts a “mockery” to the election system.

“Recent court filings by the Cabán campaign expose the hypocrisy of her efforts to delay the inevitable outcome of this election. The Cabán team is not seeking to ensure every valid vote is counted. Instead, they are engaging in an unethical effort to cherry-pick supporters and disqualify those who oppose her,” said Rey.

There is nothing left for Cában’s team to count to change the tide of the election, according to Rey.

“Overwhelmingly, he rejected the Cabán team’s efforts and upheld the judgments of the Board of Elections, which last week certified Melinda Katz as the winner of the primary,” said Rey. “It is now time to allow Queens to move on in order to begin working on crucial reforms to the District Attorney’s office.”

Cabán’s team did not respond after a request for comment.