The Democratic mayoral candidates scampered around the city Monday in a final pitch for votes as a new poll showed that the only drama left in the race is whether front-runner Bill de Blasio can avert a runoff.
A Quinnipiac University survey issued the day before the primary showed de Blasio within 1 percentage point of an outright win for his party’s nomination.
He had 39 percent, followed by former Comptroller Bill Thompson at 25 percent, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn with 18 percent.
A runoff would be held Oct. 1 between the two top finishers, unless the primary winner receives at least 40 percent.
Pollster Maurice Carroll pointed out that 8 percent of voters were still undecided, giving de Blasio an opportunity to make it cleanly to the Democratic finish line on Tuesday.
“There are no undecided voters on Election Day. If de Blasio picks up just a few of those undecided voters, he’s over the top,” Carroll said.
When decision time comes, voters will be going back to the future.
Lever voting machines from the 1960s are replacing electronic scanners after the Board of Elections warned it might not otherwise be able to count the vote in time for a potential runoff.
Thompson, who gained five points in the poll since last week, was nevertheless distrustful of the numbers.
“Polls have always shown to be terribly inaccurate,” he said.
“It’s been an interesting election, to put it mildly . . . Surprises have been part of this election since Day One.”
Quinn, the one-time front-runner, conceded she’s in a duel with Thompson for the No. 2 spot.
“I knew things would be tight. I also knew this would be a fight ’til the end,” she said in Sunnyside, Queens.
De Blasio spent part of his day greeting parents on the first day of school outside PS 58 in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, where he once served on the school board.
He tried to tamp down expectations of a clean-cut victory without a runoff.
“We want people to be clear about that and to be girded for the next phase of this battle,” he said.
Joined by his wife, Chirlane McCray, the couple said they had dropped off their son, Dante — currently starring in a controversial campaign commercial for his dad — at Brooklyn Tech, where he was “grudgingly ready” for the first day of the new school year.
For disgraced Democratic ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, Tuesday probably marks the end of a campaign that saw him surge to the top and quickly fall after a new sexting scandal surfaced.
Weiner, who has 6 percent of the vote, was on the defensive on NBC’s “Today” show when the topic turned to his wife, Huma Abedin, who hasn’t been seen on the campaign trail since early on.
“She came out for a couple of days, so let’s dial down how she was a whole big part [of my rollout],” Weiner said.