7/12/2012
By Ivan Pereira
The City Council is going to take a look at how the Board of Elections fumbled last month’s Democratic Primary.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced Thursday that the Governmental Operations Committee will hold a hearing on Aug. 8 to investigate how the BOE mishandled counting the ballots in the race between Rep. Charles Rangel and state Sen. Adriano Espaillat.
The board initially declared Rangel the victor but the incumbant’s lead shrank to 800 votes, leading to a nearly two-week battle between Espaillat and the BOE over the absentee ballots.
“The Board of Elections’ inability to accurately tally and report the results of last month’s Congressional primary in a timely manner threatens the credibility of the democratic process,” Quinn said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the BOE did not return messages comment. Espaillat conceded Monday after the board said Rangel had a 900-vote lead.
