New York City Council member Brad Lander held a first-round lead in Tuesday's Democratic primary for comptroller, but a final count may take at least a week to determine because New York's ranked-choice voting system may produce several rounds of tabulations until one candidate secures a majority.
The city's comptroller is the fiduciary for the five pension funds that comprise the $253.4 billion New York City Retirement System.
After the first round, Mr. Lander led with 31.4% of the vote, followed by Corey Johnson, the city council president, with 22.6%.
Ten comptroller candidates ran in the Democratic primary, which is likely tantamount to a formal election given Democrats account for about 68% of registered voters in the city. The general election is in early November.
Scott Stringer, the current comptroller, is limited to two terms and cannot run again. He ran in Tuesday's Democratic primary for mayor. Among 13 candidates, he placed fifth with 5% of the vote in the first round.
In New York City's ranked-choice system, voters can choose up to five candidates. If a candidate wins a majority in the first round, the election is over.
Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated and voters' second choices for that candidate are assigned to the remaining candidates. This process of elimination and reassigning is repeated until one candidate has a majority of votes.
