June 28, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
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Richards holds early lead in BP race
City Councilman Donovan Richards QNS file photo
BY JACOB KAYE
While the Democratic nominee
for Queens borough president
won’t likely be set in stone until
next week, Councilman Donovan
Richards holds the lead in the fiveway
race with about 96 percent of
scanners reported.
Former Councilwoman Elizabeth
Crowley trailed behind a close
second most of the night, even taking
the lead at times. Councilman
Costa Constantinides and retired
NYPD Sergeant Anthony Miranda
held about 15 percent of the vote
each as the numbers trickled in
throughout the evening. Businessman
Dao Yin holds the fewest votes
of the five candidates.
“I’m encouraged by the results
coming in for our campaign for
Queens Borough President and I
want to thank all of my supporters
who came out yesterday to
make their voices heard,” Richards
said in a statement Wednesday
morning. “I commend my
competitors for running a good
race that put the issues affecting
our borough at the forefront of
the campaign. While we want to
ensure that every vote is counted,
I’m looking forward to the race in
November and ultimately serving
all of our communities as Queens
Borough President.”
Constantinides held a virtual
election night party Tuesday night.
On the call, the candidate thanked
all his supporters, and said he’s
recovering well from previously
contracting COVID-19, which he
said kept him from protesting in
the last few weeks during the Black
Lives Matter demonstrations. But
as a councilman, he said he’s “been
voting.”
“Queens deserves more. We deserve
a deputy borough president
for sustainability and resiliency.
We deserve solarized and green
roofs for every building in Queens.
We need to act on climate change
with the urgency that it needs. We
need to invest in our hospital system,”
Constantinides said. “We
spent a lot of money. We were outspent
by our two major opponents,
but I had the one thing that they
didn’t have — we had people. And
I’m so grateful to each and every
one of our volunteers. Queens is the
most diverse place in the world, but
we can do so much more here.”
The Queens borough president’s
race has been ever evolving,
beginning with former Borough
President Melinda Katz’s election
to Queens district attorney in November
2019.
A special election was
scheduled for late March but
was then postponed to June
23 as COVID-19 ravaged the
borough and city.
Soon after the postponement,
the election was canceled outright.
The winner of the special election
was only to serve until the end of
the year.
The winner of Tuesday’s race
will face off against Queens County
Republican Chairwoman Joann
Ariola in the November general
election.
Results of Tuesday’s primary, including
the Queens borough president’s
race, will likely not be known
for some time, as thousands upon
thousands of absentee ballots have
yet to counted.
Voters were encouraged to vote
by absentee ballot this election
cycle because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city’s Board of Elections
won’t begin to count absentee ballots
until June 30.
Visit QNS.com for more on early
results from Tuesday’s primary.
Vol. 98 No. 26 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
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