Thread by @nytimes

The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos on Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary and then removed the tabulations, saying it had erroneously counted 135,000 test ballots. nyti.ms/3y0XQVk

The fiasco is just one in a long history of blunders by New York City’s Board of Elections. For decades, basically ever since its founding, critics have complained about the board's structure, its history of nepotism and its lack of accountability. nyti.ms/2Ui25wU

The New York City Board of Elections is staffed almost entirely by relatives and friends of political leaders, even the computer programmers. More than a dozen current and former employees said in 2020 that ineptitude is common and accountability is rare. nyti.ms/3qCWhdD

Last year, the Board of Elections sent erroneous ballots to nearly 100,000 New Yorkers seeking to vote by mail, a massive glitch that raised doubts about the city’s ability to handle the millions of mail-in ballots expected in the presidential election. nyti.ms/3h4tATS

On Election Day 2018, some voters were forced to wait in four-hour lines because of jammed machines. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the situation at poll sites “absolutely unacceptable” and said it showed that the city’s Board of Elections was “broken.” nyti.ms/3qAMB3n

In 2016, the board mistakenly purged about 200,000 people from voter rolls ahead of the presidential primaries. nyti.ms/3x9xT5N

Now, confidence in New York City’s election process is at stake. That preliminary tally is now expected Wednesday afternoon, though official results that include counts of absentee ballots will not be released until later in July. nyti.ms/360FN5N

Tuesday’s erroneous results showed a remarkable tightening of the gap between the mayoral candidates Eric Adams and Kathryn Garcia. Today, New Yorkers will learn whether those results hold up, or were merely the product of an error. nyti.ms/3hp2yp0