Melinda Katz defends 60-vote win in Queens DA race

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Just 60 votes puts Melinda Katz ahead of Tiffany Caban in the Democratic Primary race to become the next Queens County District Attorney.

The New York City Board of Elections certified Katz as the winner of the hotly contested race Monday.

"We wanted every valid vote to be counted, and the Board of Elections decided yesterday that every valid vote had been counted," Katz said on Good Day New York Tuesday. "They certified this election. I am the Democratic nominee."

But the fight for the party's nomination is hardly over.

Caban's Lawyer, Jerry Goldfeder, will be in Queens Supreme Court Wednesday pushing for a judge to review 114 affidavit ballots which had been disqualified by the Board of Elections.

"We ask the judge to look at the ballots that have never been opened and that we believe have been invalidated erroneously and ask the judge to open those ballots," said Goldfeder.

Responding to the lawsuit Katz said, "The same way that she announced victory on election night, when I said there's over 6,000 valid votes to be counted , is the same way that right now the judicial process needs to continue. But we can't wait for that. We have a borough that has the same DA for 28 years. We have a borough that is waiting for change."

This political tug-of-war between Katz and Caban has been going on since polls closed in June.

Caban was the first to declare victory, but Katz refused to concede demanding thousands of paper ballots be counted.

That put Katz ahead by 16 votes, automatically triggering a manual re-count of all 91,000 ballots.