It’s not quite official, but it’s close: After finally finishing its count of lever machine and paper ballots, the Board of Elections announced on Wednesday that Bill de Blasio won last week’s primary election by 40.88 percent, enough to avoid a runoff with Bill Thompson. De Blasio picked up 40.3 percent on election night. There are still absentee ballots to count, and the tally hasn’t been certified yet, but NBC New York reports those absentees probably won’t make much of a difference. Thompson’s latest tally, meanwhile, comes in at 26.25 percent. Even though he waited nearly a week to concede, Thompson still beat the BOE by two days.
De Blasio also picked up the United Federation of Teachers endorsement on Wednesday, which was expected, but was still a bit odd after the organization backed Thompson to the very end. The endorsement came after a three-way meeting over the weekend with Thompson, De Blasio, and UFT president Michael Mulgrew. Throw in the Clintons’ backing and one hell of a lead in the latest poll, and you’ve got a pretty good week for one former underdog.
