With the vote in the City Council’s 28th District Democratic primary certified and 24-year-old Lynn Nunes trailing Councilmember Thomas White by a mere four votes, the young candidate is proceeding with his challenge, while the Democratic incumbent assured he is prepared for anything.
“I’m still very much optimistic,” said Nunes, one of five challengers to White, whose final tally was 1,936 votes after all the machines in the southeastern Queens district were re-canvassed and all paper ballots were counted. “I mean, we went from a six vote differential to four,” he said, referring to the preliminary election night total versus the results certified on Thursday, September 24. “We still have options to make sure that every vote is counted and that’s what I intend on doing,” he vowed.
As for his “options,” Nunes, of Richmond Hill, said he would take the fight to court – and he did just that on Friday, September 25. Nunes said he hoped for a recount and was going to make sure “that all the policies and procedures were done according to the way they are written.” The candidate admitted, however, that he encountered some initial “procedural issues” in the courtroom.
Nonetheless, on Tuesday, September 29, Nunes promised to uphold his challenge because, he explained, “With four votes, even the smallest error on someone’s part can affect the outcome of the election.”
According to Nunes, his attorney is attempting to have opened roughly 20 affidavit ballots that have not yet been counted.
For his part, White remains “hopefully optimistic” and said every candidate should be able “to exercise their right in the democratic process and I have no control over who exercises their right.”
While Nunes admitted that such a challenge would not be resolved over night, he promised to not “drag my feet” and said he hoped the challenge would end “sooner than later,” as the people in the 28th District need representation.
White would not make any predictions as to what would happen when or if Nunes’ challenge moved forward.
“You can’t predict or guess what will happen in a court of law,” he said.
