Keep counting in Queens

When polls closed at 9 p.m. on June 25, the Primary Day that Queens Democrats cast their votes for district attorney, insurgent Tiffany Cabán had a lead in scanned ballots.

But she hadn’t won, and her declaration of victory over party regular Melinda Katz was premature.

That Cabán’s 1,130-vote lead then disappeared after the counting of absentee and affidavit ballots does not indicate a stolen election or a conspiracy or party machine manipulation or even incompetence by Board of Elections hacks (which we have never been shy about exposing).

The unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing by Cabán partisans like commentator Shaun King and state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi only undermine public confidence in the democratic process.

Cabán is ably represented by ace election law attorney Jerry Goldfeder, who actually wrote the book on the subject (“Goldfeder’s Modern Election Law,” now in its second edition). He is aided by a team that has tracked every move at the Board’s Queens office.

Cabán’s lead evaporated for a totally sound reason: Only the Katz campaign contacted absentee voters.

As for the 2,320 disallowed affidavit ballots, many from Cabán strongholds, those voters were not registered Democrats as of the May 31 deadline, or they failed to complete the affidavit. Claims that votes were scrapped because they favored Cabán are irresponsible; we don’t know for whom those votes were cast, because the envelopes remained sealed.

The current tally is 34,899 for Katz; 34,883 for Cabán. Next week, all 90,000 paper ballots will be hand-counted, and the totals will change.

If anyone misbehaves, no matter which candidate it favors, we’ll howl. Until then, this is democracy, and it’s on the level.