The polls are now closed in today’s Democratic primary in New York City, and we’re awaiting the results of several City Council primary races across Queens.
Registered Democrats in the “World’s Borough” headed to the polls today to cast votes in the mayor and public advocate contests, as well as City Council contests in nine Queens districts. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Public Advocate Letitia James were also on the citywide primary ballot as they seek re-election to their respective offices.
We’re closely monitoring three particularly interesting City Council primary races in Queens: the 21st District contest between Assemblyman Francisco Moya and former State Senator Hiram Monserrate; the 20th District race between incumbent City Councilman Peter Koo and challenger Alison Tan; and the 30th District battle between incumbent City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and longtime rival, Juniper Park Civic Association President Robert Holden.
We will be updating this story as all the results come in, so stay tuned! Be sure to also follow our Twitter page for up-to-the-minute results as well. Voting results are coming in from the NYC Board of Elections and WNYC.
9:04 p.m.
The first numbers are coming in from the Board of Elections, and they reveal the light turnout that many expected. In the 21st District race, just 29 votes were tallied, accounting for 3.45% of the scanners in the district. So far, Moya’s up on Monserrate 19 to 11 votes.
9:07 p.m.
Early returns from the 30th District race show Holden up on Crowley by 29 votes, 103 to 74. So far, just 1.52% of the scanners have been reported.
9:10 p.m.
In the three-way race for the Democratic nomination in the 32nd City Council District, Mike Scala’s got an early lead, according to WNYC. The winner of this race will face the incumbent City Councilman, Eric Ulrich, in the November general election.
9:12 p.m.
Another three-way battle for a City Council seat is being decided in tonight’s primary. Community activist Richard David has an early lead over Community Board 12 Chairperson Adrienne Adams and attorney Hettie Powell in the 28th District race covering southeast Queens. The seat was previously held by former City Councilman Ruben Wills, who was expelled from office this summer after being convicted of public corruption charges.
9:17 p.m.
Things have shifted quickly and dramatically in the 30th District race. With 28.79% of the votes tallied, the incumbent Crowley now has the lead on Holden. Crowley has 651 votes; Holden has 435. Only 1,090 votes have been tallied with a little over a quarter of all the scanners counted.
Meanwhile, Monserrate now has a slim lead on Moya with just 13.79% of the machines accounted for. Monserrate has 235 votes to Moya’s 207.
9:19 p.m.
Nearly two-thirds of the votes have been tallied in the 20th Council District race, and the incumbent has the edge thus far. Koo has about a 700 vote lead on Tan, 2,239 to 1,556. Only 3,813 votes have been cast in the race, and 65.22% of the scanners in the district were counted — indicative of the anemic turnout reported citywide today.
9:22 p.m.
Incumbent City Councilman Paul Vallone has a slim lead over challenger Paul Graziano in the 19th District race. Vallone has 1,836 votes to Graziano’s 1,565, with 68.9% of the precincts reporting.
Meanwhile, WNYC has called the Democratic mayoral primary for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who bested four challengers.
9:26 p.m.
The 21st District race between Moya and Monserrate is a nail-biter. With 60 percent of the vote in, Moya has a little more than a 300 vote edge on Monserrate. Moya’s got 1,794 votes, while Monserrate has 1,438.
It also can’t get much tighter in the 28th District race. With 70 percent of the vote counted, Adrienne Adams has less than a 100-vote lead on Richard David. This one is far from over.
9:30 p.m.
Of course, a number of these races aren’t anything close to nail-biters. Incumbent City Councilman Barry Grodenchik of the 23rd District in northeast Queens has a huge lead over challenger Benny Itterra, with Grodenchik getting nearly 80 percent of the votes cast. He’s heading to the general election to face Republican nominee Joe Concannon.
Another incumbent, Rory Lancman of the 24th District, has nearly three-quarters of the votes in his race against challenger Mohammad Rahman with two-thirds of the scanners reported. City Councilman I. Daneek Miller of the 27th District is also cruising to another win, as he has nearly 80 percent of the vote on challenger Anthony Rivers.
WNYC has already called the contests for Grodenchik and Miller.
9:40 p.m.
Almost all the votes are in for several key City Council races. Koo has a comfortable lead on Tan in the 20th District race with 91.3% of the scanners reported. Koo has 3,348 votes to Tan’s 2,428 votes.
WNYC has called the 30th Council District race for Elizabeth Crowley, who now has a nearly 1,100 vote lead on Robert Holden with 72.7% of the precincts reporting. Although Crowley’s secured the Democratic nomination, this race will likely go to November, as Holden has already secured the Conservative and Reform party lines.
Looking to the 21st District race, Francisco Moya has a nearly 500 vote lead on Hiram Monserrate with nearly 88% of the machines counted. And in the 28th District race, Adrienne Adams is starting to edge away from Richard David, as she now has a nearly 600 vote lead with 83% of the scanners cast.
9:42 p.m.
WNYC has also called the 32nd Council race for Mike Scala. With 65 percent of the vote tallied, Scala secured 1,285 votes over William Ruiz (781) and Helal Sheikh (700). Just 2,815 votes have been counted thus far in that contest.
Additionally, WNYC called the 21st District race for Francisco Moya and the 24th District race for Rory Lancman.
9:44 p.m.
Three more projections from WNYC: City Councilman Peter Koo has defeated Alison Tan in the 20th District race, and City Councilman Paul Vallone has turned back Paul Graziano in the 19th District race. The last outstanding race has gone to Adrienne Adams, who narrowly defeated Richard David in the 28th District race.
And that does it for City Council races in Queens until November.
9:50 p.m.
We’re going to put a bow on this live report on the 2017 Democratic Primary election. We’ll have a full recap of the primary with the full completed count in each district in the morning, along with comments from some of this evening’s winners. Thanks for reading!
