by Saeed Shabazz
Staff Writer

NEW YORK (Finalcall.com) �Mark Green�s victory in the Oct. 11 democratic mayoral primary runoff over Fernando Ferrer was thrown into question just three days later, after the New York City Board of Elections said the unofficial voter tally was off by potentially 200,000 ballots.

Board of Elections Deputy Director Joseph Gentile stopped short of saying that the final count would change the outcome. The Board was set to start the official count on Oct. 17.

The reason given by the Board for the over count is a result of consolidating multiple election districts on single machines in probably hundreds of districts. It appears that counts for those machines were doubled erroneously.

Meanwhile, activists such as the Rev. Al Sharpton had harsh words for mayoral hopeful Mark Green and the Democratic Party, charging the democratic nominee did "everything he could to polarize the city." Mr. Ferrer, 51, was trying to become New York�s first Latino mayor.

Observers say that race became a factor in late August when Rev. Al Sharpton endorsed Mr. Ferrer.

The projection of Rev. Sharpton as the city�s race-baiting bogeyman is entirely a media creation, according to Brooklyn school teacher Colette Caeser, a campaign worker for Mr. Ferrer.

"The media slandered Freddie Ferrer because of the endorsement. They used that to further denigrate Mr. Ferrer. He deserves credit for seeking to build a bridge between Blacks and Latinos and even that was used by the media to alienate whites, which further polarized the [mayoral] race," she said.

One New York tabloid, in the last week of the campaign, ran cartoons portraying Rev. Sharpton as a flatulent, grossly overweight puppeteer with Mr. Ferrer sitting on his lap, having his strings pulled.

"The political pundits had picked Freddie Ferrer to come in either third or last," Rev. Al Sharpton said on Oct. 13 at his National Action Network (NAN) headquarters. "When they found out that he had come in first [in the primary], there was hysteria. You would think that we were not in New York in 2001, but in Mississippi in 1961," Rev. Sharpton told his audience.

"On the strength of the coalition we built, Freddie Ferrer defied the odds. Now they are mad with us because we made Black and Latino voters count. Whatever happens from now on in this city, the Democratic Party will learn that they cannot function without us," he said.

Mr. Ferrer garnered 71 percent of the Black vote and 84 percent of the Latino vote, but only about 16 percent of the white vote. What turned it around for Mr. Green was that whites turned out in the runoff, giving the Public Advocate 84 percent of their vote, coupled with 29 percent of the Black vote. The white turnout was low in the September 25 primary.

"The question of who really came out to the polls on October 11 is important," Rev. Sharpton said during an interview on a radio talk show. "What we want to know now is where were the mistakes made. That will explain partially why we had an over count," he said.

Bronx Democratic Party chairman Roberto Ramirez agreed. "How are we to believe any thing that the Board of Elections said?" he asked.

"Florida has come to New York City," Mr. Ramirez said, adding, "The worst case scenario is that maybe thousands of Black and Latino voters have been disenfranchised."

Rev. Sharpton said that NAN and the state NAACP are holding their options open for a court challenge. The runoff was the city�s third mayoral primary in a month. The polls were open Sept. 11 when the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center halted primary voting.

In the rescheduled primary on Sept. 25, Fernando Ferrer was the top vote getter with 36 percent in a field of four. Mark Green was second, but neither garnered the 40 percent necessary to avoid a runoff.

The 2001 mayoral campaign had begun to pick up momentum with candidates concentrating on education, affordable housing and keeping crime low. After the attack on the Twin Towers, the focus of the campaign shifted to questions over who would be a strong enough leader to pull the city through a crisis of security, rebuilding and economic recovery.

The race turned nasty just days before the runoff election as Mr. Green unleashed a television ad questioning Mr. Ferrer�s leadership skills. Mr. Ferrer fired back with an ad accusing Mr. Green of breaking his pledge not to engage in negative campaigning.

But on the streets, activists were complaining that the television ad smacked of racism. It stereotyped Mr. Ferrer, a Puerto Rican, as a man incapable of leading because of his ethnicity, observers said.

Ferrer supporter Larry Hanley, head of Local 726 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, who is white, said he, too, was concerned about the divisive tone of Mr. Green�s campaign.

"I think there are many divisive forces in our city. I don�t think Mark Green has objected to it," he said.

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) said Mark Green "has been a unifier for many years."

"He got the broadest coalition ethnically and geographically of any candidate," Rep. Nadler observed.

If the election results stand, local Democrats must repair the rift if they are to defeat media mogul Michael Bloomberg, the Republican Party nominee.

An exit poll conducted by cable news show NY1 stated that one third of those who say they voted for Mr. Ferrer would stay home in November if he lost the runoff.