A federal judge in Manhattan ruled late Monday that at least 1,000 disputed ballots in a closely watched Democratic congressional primary should be counted, upending a race that remains undecided six weeks after the election and that has drawn the attention of President Trump and embarrassed the New York City Board of Elections.
The ruling, by Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan, may not affect the outcome in the June 23 primary. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney is leading her Democratic challenger, Suraj Patel, by some 3,700 votes, and the judge’s decision was narrowly drawn to force the counting of only a portion of the 12,500 disputed absentee ballots.
Still, the judge’s decision is the latest twist in a race that has been used by the president to cast doubts on the efficacy of vote-by-mail systems nationwide, even as he trails in polls in his bid for re-election. The coronavirus outbreak has prompted states across the nation to consider expanding mail-in voting for the general election in November, as public health officials worry that convening at polling locations may spread the disease.
On Monday, Mr. Trump said that Ms. Maloney’s race was “a mess” and “a total disaster,” and suggested that it should be “rerun.”
“They’re six weeks into it now,” Mr. Trump said. “They have no clue what’s going on.”
Under Judge Torres’s decision, ballots received the day after Election Day — June 24 — will be counted “without regard to whether such ballots are postmarked by June 23.” Mr. Patel estimates that this amounts to about 1,200 ballots, which would not be enough for him to overtake Ms. Maloney. Ballots that were received by June 25 — two days after the election deadline — would also be valid, so long as they did not have a postmark later than June 23.
In sworn testimony last week, postal officials conceded that their system of identifying and postmarking ballots — a critical element in determining whether ballots were sent by the Election Day deadline — was not foolproof, and that some ballots had not been postmarked.
Late Monday, Mr. Patel lauded the judge’s decision, casting it as a warning about possible complications in the general election. “This is no longer a Democratic or a Republican fight, this is not an establishment versus progressive fight,” he said. “This is now a fight for the voting rights of millions in a pandemic.”
Ms. Maloney’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Monday night.
Mr. Trump has cited the primary contest in New York City as evidence for his unfounded claims that mail-in voting is susceptible to fraud. There is no evidence that the primary results were tainted by criminal malfeasance, according to a wide array of election officials and representatives of campaigns.
While the outcomes have been unknown for weeks in Ms. Maloney’s race — in the 12th Congressional District, which includes parts of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn — and another race in a nearby district in the Bronx, the cause of the delays is clear.
In late April, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, ordered a wide expansion of access to absentee voting as the state reeled from the pandemic, which has killed more than 30,000 people in New York. But local boards of election were unprepared for the crush of ballots they received: Over 400,000 were cast in New York City alone, more than were submitted across the entire state in 2018.
Working with a model geared toward machine counts of in-person ballots, the city’s Board of Elections was overwhelmed by the number of mailed ballots and constricted by state law that sets precise guidelines for counting such ballots, which typically make up just a small fraction of the total number of votes.
While Judge Torres ruled on ballots that were disputed over a postmark, thousands of others have already been disqualified for minor errors such as missing signatures on envelopes or envelopes sealed with tape rather than saliva.
In her decision, Judge Torres also opened the door for possible consideration of ballots received as late as June 30 if they could decide the race.
In the June 23 primary, the outcomes of some races were determined or codified by absentee votes, including several victories for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in New York, a deep blue state.
But the slow pace of counting in New York City has drawn the scorn of the president, as well as concern from Mr. Cuomo, who has clashed with Mr. Trump on multiple occasions and predicted his defeat in November.
On Saturday, Mr. Cuomo said that he had offered to assist local election boards — such as New York City’s — with national guard personnel in the June primary, but had not sent any such personnel for help.
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