City Elections Board certifies Maloney and Ritchie as winners

New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney has won her primary after six weeks of vote counting in the 12th District, according to the city’s Board of Elections.

Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez confirmed Tuesday night that the board certified Maloney as the primary winner. The board also certified that Councilman

Ritchie Torres won the Democratic primary in the open 15th Congressional District.

Maloney led Suraj Patel, a former hotel executive, by 3,700 votes when the results were certified Tuesday, according to Maloney’s campaign.

“This has been a historic election, with historic turnout and participation and a historic wait time for results,” Maloney said in a statement. “We’ve learned many lessons for November, and must take a number of actions to protect the safety of our vote in the general election.”

The primary has been mired in a legal fight over invalid absentee ballots. Patel filed a lawsuit to count ballots that arrived by the June 30 deadline but were not properly postmarked.

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that some absentee ballots without postmarks but received two days after the primary should be counted, according to CNN. Those additional ballots were not included in the results certified Tuesday, Vazquez confirmed.