A defiant Bill Thompson pushed back against demands that he drop out of the mayor’s race, emerging from an emergency meeting of his top backers Thursday night saying “we believe the votes should be counted.”
Hours earlier, Democratic rival Bill de Blasio, staged a massive rally in downtown Brooklyn in an attempt to pressure Thompson to concede before the final tally in the Democratic primary.
Some of Thompson’s own former supporters attended the rally and the chorus of those calling on him to drop out in the name of party unity grew louder as the day wore on.
But the former comptroller stood his ground after huddling with advisers who included Rep. Charles Rangel and teachers union chief Mike Mulgrew.
“It continues to become clearer and clearer that there are tens of thousands of votes that are out there. We believe the votes should be counted,” Thompson declared after a meeting at the union’s headquarters on lower Broadway.
“The first step in that is machine canvas on Friday and Saturday. We believe the votes should be counted. we believe that people should be heard. That’s it. ”
De Blasio finished Tuesday night with 40.3 percent of the vote in the unofficial count of 99 percent of election districts — barely above the 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff with Thompson on Oct. 1.
The Board of Elections reported that not all the votes had been counted, including about 78,000 paper ballots.
A recanvass of the voting machines begins Friday and is expected to end Sunday. The paper ballots won’t be opened until Monday and the tally on those might not be finished until Wednesday or Thursday.
Thompson has until midnight Friday to withdraw, a move that would cancel the runoff.
Otherwise his name will he will appear on the ballot if de Blasio ends up falling below 40 percent. Of course, Thompson could still throw in the towel at any time and not campaign.
Mulgrew — who had issued a non-committal statement about the outcome earlier — defended his candidate’s decision to at least wait until the voting machine results could be verified.
“Listen, I’m willing to support the candidate who we have endorsed and I am willing to follow the path which he has asked us to do at this point. We’re going to wait the two days. And we want to see the canvass–the machine’s canvass,” he said.
In the past, figures hastily recorded on election nights have been transposed and had to be corrected.
“There are always mistakes,” said one source.
If the polls are right — and they have been to this point — Thompson would be a heavy underdog in a runoff.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted Sept. 3 — a week before the primary — showed deBlasio would overwhelm Thompson in a runoff by 56-36 percent.