#Suraj Patel files lawsuit in 12th District ballot battle with Rep. Carolyn Maloney

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Democratic challenger Suraj Patel and Manhattan Rep. Carolyn Maloney
William Farrington; Reuters

The vote-counting to decide the nail-biting Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District pitting insurgent Suraj Patel against veteran Rep. Carolyn Maloney is already in court.

In a pre-emptive strike, Patel, trailing Maloney by only 648 votes in the unofficial machine count in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, filed a lawsuit urging Manhattan state Supreme to supervise the final tally in the race — including counting of an unprecedented number of absentee ballots requested during the coronavirus pandemic.

The suit lists Maloney, the city Board of Elections and the other candidates in the race, Lauren Ashcraft and Peter Harrison, as defendants.

Under state law, a candidate has to file a legal challenge within 10 days of the election to preserve the right to question the vote counts. Because of the Independence Day holiday, that means petitions must be filed by next Thursday, July 2.

The Patel campaign petition said the election law “confers authority upon this court to determine and resolve any disputes arising out or relating to the canvass of ballots and returns in the primary election.”

It’s likely that there will be more absentee or mail-in votes cast than in-person votes from the Tuesday primary. The counting of paper ballots begins next week.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order making it easier to vote by absentee ballot to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 at polling sites — and 750,000 voters requested mail-in ballots citywide.

The unofficial machine count had Maloney in front with 16,473 votes to 15,825 for Patel, 5,268 for Ashcraft and 1,933 for Harrison. But the results varied by borough.

Maloney, 74, first elected in 1992, carried the East Side of Manhattan – the largest portion of the district and long her political base – with 2,553 more votes more than Patel. Maloney received 12,216 votes to Patel’s 9,663 in Manhattan.

Patel, 36, a hotel magnate who worked for former President Barack Obama, garnered 1,365 more votes than Maloney in Brooklyn and 540 more votes in Queens.

An unprecedented 109,000 Democrats in the 12th District requested an absentee ballot.

But the lion’s share of the paper ballot requests — 79,000 — came from Manhattan’s East Side. The Board of Elections has already received 11,064 of the absentee ballots from Manhattan compared to 4,417 from Queens and 135 from Brooklyn.

If the count of mail-in ballots follows the machine count, Maloney would expand her lead and became the clear victor – an outcome she has predicted.

Patel is represented by election lawyer Stanley Schlein in the court proceeding. Attorney and former state Sen. Martin Connor is representing Maloney.

The two also faced off two years ago. Maloney won re-election.