After weeks of tallying, hand counts and legal skirmishes, two nail-biter Democratic Assembly primaries in Manhattan and Queens finally tilted toward apparent winners this week. David Siffert declared victory in Lower Manhattan’s 66th Assembly District, while Patrick Martinez’s campaign said it held the edge in Queens’ 30th District. In both races, a tiny stack of ballots ended up deciding who will speak for some of New York City’s densest and most politically engaged neighborhoods in Albany.
In Manhattan’s AD 66, Siffert’s campaign said the final hand count nudged them ahead by a razor-thin margin after days of painstaking ballot reviews, and that rival Jeannine Kiely withdrew a lawsuit and conceded the race, ending the fight, as reported by amNewYork. The contest had been in limbo for weeks: Siffert trailed on election night, then mail, affidavit and cured ballots steadily sliced into the deficit and eventually flipped the lead, triggering a manual recount and close inspection of virtually every piece of paper. The result finally clarifies who is in line to replace retiring Assemblymember Deborah Glick in a safely Democratic district.
In Queens’ 30th Assembly District, Martinez moved to declare victory after campaign filings and canvass totals showed him with 2,703 votes to Shamsul Haque’s 2,690, with Somnath Ghimire at 689, according to Queens Daily Eagle and the state board’s unofficial returns. At one point, the gap was reportedly as small as two votes, a margin that automatically triggered a hand recount and kept both campaigns glued to every absentee and affidavit ballot. Operatives on each side say the priority is making sure every legally cast vote is counted and any disputes are resolved before final certification.
Why It Matters
Beyond settling who heads to Albany for two high-profile districts, the AD 66 outcome would also be a first for the state. Siffert, a civil rights lawyer and NYU law instructor, would become the first openly nonbinary person elected to New York state government if the result holds, a milestone noted by the Times Union and in Siffert’s campaign materials. Martinez, meanwhile, ran from Woodside as a local Democratic district leader with establishment support. His City & State profile highlights family ties to former Rep. Joe Crowley and a career in digital ad sales, a mix that helped define the insider-heavy dynamics of the Queens race. Whoever ultimately prevails in each district will play a key role in deciding what priorities those neighborhoods send to Albany this fall.
What Happens Next
The New York City Board of Elections still has to complete the hand recounts, settle any challenged ballots and certify the results. Local reporting has noted that the BOE had yet to post final vote totals as of publication, so these races are not officially in the books. If disputed ballots remain after the recount, election law challenges or other legal petitions could drag the process out, potentially delaying certification for days or longer, a timeline consistent with the recount procedures described by NY1. For voters from Greenwich Village and Tribeca to Woodside, the hair-thin margins are a loud reminder that every ballot, and every cured envelope, can be the one that tips the scales.
