New York City’s Primary Elections happened just over two weeks ago, but the city’s board of elections is still in the thick of tabulating the vote. With the addition of ranked choice voting this year and drama stemming from the elections board’s dysfunction, figuring out the winner of each election has not been straightforward, yet the field of candidates has narrowed down in some races.

As of July 6, Eric Adams holds a slight lead over Kathryn Garcia in the race to be the Democratic Party’s mayoral nominee, according to election results compiled by Spectrum News. Adams has 51.1 percent of the vote and Garcia has 48.9 percent. In terms of who could win, Adams was the clear favorite as the race’s initial results trickled in, but that clarity was stymied by the revelation of 135,000 test ballots that errantly made their way into the voting system.

NYC’s BOE released a statement via Twitter on June 30 to try and soothe widely held concerns over the board’s ability to properly manage the tabulation process around RCV. They said that the voting tallies were off for mayoral nominees because of ballot images that were not cleared from the Election Management System during a test run. The statement said, “Let us be clear: RCV was not the problem, rather a human error that could have been avoided.”

Ranked choice voting applies to the following races this year: mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and numerous city council elections. And while hundreds of thousands of voters went to the polls on June 22, the last day that the city will not have finalized ballots until July 9. Despite not having a complete vote, the city released a preliminary round-by-round elimination report on June 29 and another on July 6.

The city will release these unofficial reports each week until the election is fully certified. The result of each election that is determined by ranked choice voting will not truly be known until all absentee and military ballots are collected and counted. While some candidates are content with how the voting process is being handled, others have voiced concerns over a lack of transparency.

One of the reasons that the election process can feel dragged out in some races is due to the ballot curing process. Some races don’t need to take them into consideration because of the lead candidate’s margin of victory, but in closer races the ballots can add weeks to the process.

“There were people who made mistakes when filling out there ranked-choice ballot and those were thrown out,” said Martha Ayon, a Queens-based political consultant. “The ballot curing process is only concerned with errors made to the envelope that the ballot is in, not errors made in filling out the ballot itself.”

As per the Queens races, Donovan Richards is the incumbent Queens Borough President and ran against Elizbeth Crowley in this year’s election. The two faced off in a special Democratic primary last year where Richards won, but the general election was cancelled due to safety concerns over the pandemic.

While Richards won that race by a margin of over 10,000 votes, Crowley seems to have gained traction since then. Currently, less than 2,000 votes separate the two among preliminary voting reports, with Richards slightly on top. A victor will be declared in the coming weeks as absentee ballots come in to fill out the picture.

“There’s two sides to each ballot – the envelope side and the actual ballot,” Ayon said, explaining that thousands of ballots will end up discarded because of improper dates or signatures in the wrong spot. “There’s people who actually did not vote – without knowing – because once their ballots were opened by the board of elections they were technically thrown out.”

“If the board of elections worker thinks there’s an error with someone’s ballot, they should fold the ballot up and put it aside, contact the voter and give them seven days to come in and fill it out,” Moya said. “In the end, the board throws it out because the ballot is invalidated.”

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy 4th of July. Now that our national birthday party is over until next year, we must all again focus on saving the lives of our Veterans at risk. As we enjoy our summer rituals of beaches, barbecues, travel, and other recreational activities, let us make sure that those who make those traditions possible, also get to enjoy them.

We Veterans are the smallest minority group in our population, yet we suffer from the dual epidemics of cancer and suicide at much higher rates than civilians. The reasons for this are many, but the solution is simple. The solution is: The Gold Shield. Most people are shocked and offended when they learn that almost every hour of every day, another Veteran is lost to suicide, and an even greater number are lost to cancer, and those tragic numbers are directly caused by military service.

To make matters worse, the government does little to improve the situation. Since the government cannot solve the problem, it is up to us – the private sector. The Gold Shield is the mechanism we all can use to deliver services Vets need to reduce their appalling death toll. It is tragic when we lose any service member on the battlefield – but it is UNFORGIVABLE TO KEEP ON LOSING THEM AT HOME.

The charming streets of Forest Hills are lined with restaurants, cafes, diners, and food carts. With so much variety, there’s no time to visit them all. If you’re in a rush, grab a quick meal to eat while you’re on the go. For those with more time on their hands, bring a friend and dine-in at our selection of restaurants. 

Spy C Cuisine
First on our list is Spy C Cuisine, a Michelin star restaurant that serves authentic Sichuan and Hunan food. Spy C was awarded the Bib Gourmand award in 2020. Start off your meal with their famous spicy cucumber salad, which Chef Thomas Lo described as “the best cucumber salad he had ever tasted.” He now cooks for Spy C. Michelin reviewers recommend the stir-fried lamb and fish fillet. Try these dishes and more at 72-06 Austin Street.

Queens Bully 

Queens Bully has got everything you could ever want out of a restaurant. This gastropub has indoor and outdoor seating, happy hour specials, a cocktail bar, and live music on weekends. Their menu consists of burgers, tacos, and barbeque. They even have bottomless brunch. Customers describe Queens Bully to have amazing vibes. Check it out at 113-30 Queens Blvd. 

Knish Nosh

Crystal Walthall has been working for Faith in New York (FINY), an organization that works with people of all faiths by empowering them through social justice and community organizing.Walthall has worked with FINY for 7 years and recently became Executive Director in 2019. Faith in New York is the NYC affiliate of Faith in Action. With many members of different faiths and ideas, the main common ground is the passion for social justice in their communities. 

“Though we each come to this work from different religious practices, cultures, races, even languages, what unites us is a fundamental belief that we are called as people of faith to seek the work of justice and liberation in our communities,” said Walthall. “It compels us to put our faith into action, to reach beyond the 4 walls of our houses of worship to be active voices and agents of transformation.”

FINY has currently been working on certain issue areas on both a local and National level, such as immigration work to ensure that immigrant families have access to resources that sustain families, expand rights, and ultimately create a pathway to citizenship. This work includes providing mutual aid cash assistance resources to eligible families, DACA workshops for community education, and working on a pathway to citizenship for essential workers. The nonprofit also works on civic engagement in terms of voting rights, ensuring that their communities have access to safe and fair elections to elect politicians that represent the needs and values of their communities. 

“This summer, we will begin a Season of Healing and Connection, a listening campaign to hear the issues that are impacting our communities and our vision for NYC after the pandemic,” Walthall said. “With this year being a pivotal election in NYC, this will also be an opportunity to hold our elected officials accountable to the issues that impact our communities most.”

To learn more about Faith in New York, visit https://faithinnewyork.org/