Congressman Charles Rangel on Wednesday strongly defended the city Board of Election's handling of last week's primary.

Rangel's once-sizable lead over his opponent State Senator Adriano Espaillat has shrunk considerably in recent days and now is at just over 800 votes.

Speaking to reporters in Harlem, Rangel did not respond to questions about allegations of voter suppression or intimidation during the primary.

He did, however, express his frustration at the large number of accusations from Espaillat's campaign.

"You cannot do this by knocking the system. You can't just call people crooks and say that they are committing illegal acts," Rangel said.

Espaillat's campaign has filed court papers alleging Latino voters were wrongly turned away from the polls and that bilingual election workers were replaced by ones that only spoke English.