New York City’s Board of Elections threw the city’s mayoral race into chaos after it released, and then later withdrew, new vote totals showing a narrowing of the Democratic field.

       A release of voting results on Tuesday initially showed Eric Adams, the Brooklyn Borough President, with a slim lead over Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, in the Democratic primary, which often determines the next mayor of the city given its Democratic leaning.

       Hours later, the results were withdrawn, after campaign officials for Mr Adams pointed out a discrepancy between the number of in-person votes on Election Day and the totals released on Tuesday. It was soon discovered that more than 130,000 “test” votes had been added to the system, and incorrectly allowed to remain in the tabulation as real votes were added.

       In a statement, the board apologized for the error on Tuesday evening and officials said that accurate results would be released on Wednesday.

       pic.twitter.com/y70z7ZYYgK

       — NYC Board of Elections (@BOENYC) June 30, 2021

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       Those results, however, will still not include absentee ballot counts meaning that the real results of the city’s mayoral race will remain unclear for weeks.

       Both Mr Adams and Ms Garcia knocked the board for its mixup on Tuesday, as did Maya Wiley, the third-place contender who now pins her hopes of surging past Ms Garcia in absentee ballot voting.

       "Today’s mistake by the Board of Elections was unfortunate. It is critical that New Yorkers are confident in their electoral system, especially as we rank votes in a citywide election for the first time," said Mr Adams. "We appreciate the Board’s transparency and acknowledgment of their error. We look forward to the release of an accurate, updated simulation, and the timely conclusion of this critical process."

       "Even with today’s ranked choice report we are still waiting for more than 120,000 absentee ballots to be counted and we are confident about a path to victory," Ms Garcia countered in her own statement. "Once all the votes are counted, I know everyone will support the Democratic nominee and that’s exactly what I intend to do. We look forward to the final results. Democracy is worth waiting for."

       The city’s current mayor, Bil de Blasio, also weighed in on the chaos and called on state lawmakers to address “fundamental structural flaws” with the board of elections.

       “There must be an immediate, complete recanvass of the BOE’s vote count and a clear explanation of what went wrong,” he said.

       Statement from @NYCMayor on the Board of Elections: pic.twitter.com/6C9mx8RQEP

       — NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) June 30, 2021