NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) — Queens Borough President Melinda Katz on Thursday declared victory over public defender Tiffany Cabán in the race for the Democratic nomination for Queens district attorney -- but Cabán says the race is not over.
The manual recount of more than 90,000 votes ended Thursday, exactly one month after the June 25 primary.
Cabán -- who was endorsed by progressive Democrats Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- led by 1,090 votes immediately after the election, but Katz pulled ahead by 16 votes after absentee and affidavit ballots were counted.
The Board of Elections has not announced the results, but the Katz campaign said in a statement, "Now that every valid vote has been counted and recounted, the results confirm once again that the people of Queens have chosen Melinda Katz as the Democratic nominee for District Attorney."
The statement added, "We respect the recount process and the crucial role it has played in upholding our democracy and insuring that every voice has been heard. Lawyers from both campaigns have worked closely with Board officials to maintain fairness and consistency with the law during this race."
Cabán, however, is not accepting Katz's apparent win, saying her campaign will head to court to "restore wrongly invalidated ballots cast by registered and eligible Queens Democratic voters."
Cabán said in a statement, "We have said from day one that we will keep fighting until all the valid votes of eligible Queens Democrats are counted. Our campaign will be in Court to make sure the people of Queens are not disenfranchised. I am so proud of the volunteer energy and beautiful coalition that propelled this campaign. Our communities are calling for a fair and equitable criminal justice system that ends mass incarceration, uplifts our black and brown communities, and decriminalizes poverty — rather than protecting the powerful."
