CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS FROM THE NEW YORK CITY PRIMARY
On Monday, they will begin counting absentee ballots and affidavits. In total, more than 30,000 votes may not have been tallied on primary night, or the equivalent of about 4 percent of the 640,000 ballots that were counted.
The vote check will most likely be completed by the middle of next week.
"This system, these machines are done by man. Man, by nature, is an imperfect being, therefore we have to do double and triple checks to make sure every vote is counted," said Mike Ryan, the executive director of the NYC Board of Elections.
Democratic frontrunner Bill de Blasio is about 4,000 votes over the 40 percent of the primary vote, the mark he needs to avoid a runoff.
Despite calls to concede, second-place finisher Bill Thompson says he intends to stay in the race until all of the votes are counted.
Now, several labor unions are throwing their support behind de Blasio after previously endorsing City Council Speaker and third-place finisher Christine Quinn.
Thompson, an ex-comptroller and the Democrats' 2009 nominee who narrowly lost then to incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reiterated Thursday night his stated position that all votes should be counted before he makes his decision.
"We believe that the votes should be counted," he told reporters after meeting with several powerful allies, including U.S. Reps. Charles Rangel and Gregory Meeks. "We believe that people should be heard."
Still, as some Democratic leaders consider what to do, others publicly proclaimed that they were abandoning him.
"In an election year with so many tough decisions on crucial issues, we must begin a new chapter today by uniting behind our Democratic nominee for New York City's next mayor," announced Assemblyman Walter Mosley, a former Thompson endorser. "I am proud to support Public Advocate Bill de Blasio."
By Thursday afternoon, five other state lawmakers and three city councilmen also announced they were leaving Thompson for de Blasio. They were joined by two dozen politicians and several powerful organizations, including unions, who had backed other mayoral hopefuls who lost in the primary.
De Blasio held a raucous rally on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall to welcome new supporters.
"To all of those who join us today, I say, I am thrilled to have the reinforcements," he said.
If Thompson bows out by midnight Friday, his name would not appear on the ballot for the runoff even if the final count gives de Blasio less than 40 percent, according to the city Board of Elections. In an ironic twist, that provision of election law is dubbed the Weiner Rule, after disgraced mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner who, in 2005, conceded the Democratic primary after finishing in second-place to former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, who finished the primary with around 40 percent.
Regardless, a citywide runoff will be held for the office of public advocate.
For her part, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, herself a candidate, set aside any hard feelings caused by the bruising primary campaign and said she would "enthusiastically support the Democratic nominee."
"I think it's clear to most folks that person is going to be Bill de Blasio, but that's a decision for Bill Thompson to make himself," said Quinn, the race's former front-runner, in her first comments since primary night. She asked her supporters to "please rally behind the Democratic nominee as quickly as possible."
The Republican mayoral nominee, Joe Lhota, engaged in a daylong media blitz to reintroduce himself to voters. He quickly painted a potential general election matchup with the liberal de Blasio as a battle of wildly disparate visions for the city.
"Bill has a completely different philosophy than I do on how to deal with public schools, how to deal with public safety, how to create jobs, how to deal with taxes," Lhota said on WOR radio.
Both de Blasio and Lhota thanked Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday for refusing to make an endorsement.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
