NEW YORK.- The New York State Supreme Court’s authorization for the lawyers of Dominican-American state senator Adriano Espaillat to expand their arguments on alleged irregularities in the Democratic primary in which Congressman Charles Rangel was declared the winner paves the way for a new election between the two contenders.
The Board of Elections declared Rangel the winner of the balloting on June 26 when Espaillat conceded to his opponent, but days later his team said it had uncovered irregularities and violations of voters’ rights that affected the outcome, challenging and questioning the proceedings before the Board that started a recount which will conclude Thursday.
After the recount the difference was just 802 votes and Espaillat believes that after all the ballots are counted, including absentee voters and those who had to cast ballots via sworn statements for not figuring in their polling places, the Dominican could be declared the official winner of the primaries.
Nonetheless Espaillat and his lawyers have taken further steps and went to the N.Y. Supreme Court Monday morning where he filed suit and put the electoral standoff in the hands of a Justice.
Rangel holds one of the longest tenures in the U.S. Congress.