NEW YORK — Primary election day will feel more like primary election month.

The primaries for mayor, city comptroller and other offices are June 22.

But the counting of all ballots may not begin until July 12.


What You Need To Know

  • Absentee ballot deadlines will delay counting process

  • Voters have chance to fix mistakes they may on their absentee ballots

  • Officials project the running of ranked-choice voting rounds will begin mid-July

  • But the state Board of Elections has yet to approve software to count rank-choice votes

The stark reminder came from a city Board of Elections official at a City Council budget hearing Friday.

The timeline revolves around deadlines relating to absentee ballots.

As always, unofficial results tabulated from in-person votes will be released on Election Night, June 22.

But absentee ballots are not due at city Board of Elections offices until a week later, June 29.

Then, the Board of Elections will notify voters who’ve made errors on their absentee ballots — such as neglecting to sign the inner oath envelopes — that they can fix or “cure” those ballots. The voters’ responses are due seven business days later, July 9.

“So considering we have a federal holiday also — the Fourth of July that falls on the fifth — it would take us to start running the rounds, the week of July 12,” Dawn Sandow, deputy executive director of the city Board of Elections, told City Council members.

Next month’s elections mark the first time most New Yorkers will be using ranked-choice voting. The new system allowing them to rank candidates from one through five in order of preference.

Once absentee ballots are received, the counting is expected to happen quickly thanks to new tabulation software.

But an additional hitch is that the software has not yet been approved by the state Board of Elections.

The certification process is expected to happen Tuesday. If the software isn’t ready in time for the primaries, it may come to a hand count.

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