Voting booths at a Bushwick middle school PS162. — Photo by Aaron Short
Diana Reyna hasn’t officially won the City Council seat, as Maritza Davila has not conceded yet. As of this morning, attorneys and volunteers for both camps are furiously monitoring the counting of paper ballots in downtown Brooklyn (345 Adams Street) and canvassing machines in a warehouse in Red Hook and in Queens. This is one of the few Council districts that crosses two boroughs so staff for both campaigns are splitting time between two different county Board of Elections offices.
Coming to support Reyna include members of New Kings Democrats, led by Matt Cowherd and Rachel Lauter. The following is an email Cowherd sent to NKD members:
As many of you know, at the end of election day on Tuesday, Councilwoman Diana Reyna was leading Maritza Davila by just 223 votes.
Vito Lopez has requested a recount, and Councilwoman Reyna is looking for people to help monitor the recount tomorrow morning. The campaign needs individuals to go to either 645 Clinton Street at the corner of Lorraine in Red Hook or the Brooklyn Board of Elections at 345 Adams at Fulton at 10AM.
It’s little rest for the weary, as Cowherd, fresh off running Leslie Crocker Snyder’s field operations in Manhattan (she lost to Cy Vance in a bid to be Manhattan’s District Attorney), is back in Brooklyn lending a hand to Team Diana. As of yesterday, about fifty paper ballots were declared invalid, leaving sixty left to be counted. This morning Reyna picked up a few votes in the machine recounts (I’m hearing 10 in Ridgewood and 2 in Brooklyn), so it is increasingly likely Davila will still be behind once the vote is certified in the following days.
UPDATE: Though Maritza Davila did indeed pick up some votes in the recount, Diana Reyna picked up more, securing her victory by 251 votes.
John Dereszewski September 19th, 2009 at 9:37 am
The absentee ballot count is the thing to watch here. As has occurred in the past, Vito’s people have probably stockpiled absentee ballots from as many homebound seniors as they could identify. This could narrow the gap unless the Reyna campaign has also adopted this strategy. Still, it would take a pretty large swing in the vote to eliminate a 223 vote gap. Stay tuned.
Longtime Resident September 20th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
My daughter personally witnessed poll workers telling voters to vote for Davila. As a former poll worker I know this is not allowed. At the Buena Vida Nursing Home poll site, Ms. Vega told voter 59 to vote for Davila. And as for the poor sick n elderly who live in that facility…….
Anonymous September 28th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Vito was paying bums in Bushwick-Hylan Houses $50 to vote for Davila. He’s a dirty bastard, but it didn’t work!