WASHINGTON (US) – Late on Monday, a US judge ordered local election boards in New York state to count “thousands” of absentee ballots which were received the day after a congressional primary on June 23. It was previously disqualified because of postmark issues.
Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the absentee ballots are to be counted “without regard to whether such ballots are postmarked by June 23.” Democratic party incumbent Carolyn Maloney bagged 40.29% of votes while rival Suraj Patel received 38.43%.
The judge also ruled that the ballots received on June 25 also have to be counted as long as they are not postmarked later than June 23.
A many as 12,000 ballots were disqualified. About 1.2 million voters in New York, including 414,582 in New York City, voted by absentee ballot.
New York featured among the five states that held primaries in June and encouraged voters to take part in absentee ballot rather than in-person voting in view of the pandemic.
The judge mentioned that there was “uncontroverted evidence” that thousands of absentee ballots were not postmarked.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field