Adams likely winner of New York City Democrat mayoral primary as Yang ends campaign

Because of a new "ranked choice" voting system in which no candidate on the ballot secured a 50 percent majority, however, vote tabulation will continue throughout the coming weeks. Adams has 31.7 percent of the vote as of Wednesday morning, according to the New York City Board of Election.

This was a new voting system for New York, where voters were able to select five candidates and rank them in order of preference.

"At the end of each round, the last-place candidate is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate will have their vote counted for their next choice," according to NPR.

Absentee and mail-in-ballots have also not yet been tabulated, and their are not due in until June 29, seven days after the Tuesday election day.

Andrew Yang, whose name recognition from his 2020 presidential campaign made him a front-runner in the New York City mayoral primary, conceded the race Tuesday night shortly before 11 pm, after a poor showing in early vote tallies.

Yang told his supporters at a Manhattan hotel, "Our city was in crisis, and we believed we could help."

Yang placed fourth in the contest at only 11.7 percent of the total with 56,256 votes.

As a self-described "numbers guy" Yang said, "I am not going to be mayor of New York City based on the numbers that have come in tonight."

Yang added that he believed his campaign had influenced the discussion and debate over priorities for the Big Apple’s future and said he and his wife would seek to help the city in other ways.

Eric Adams (143,657 votes), Maya Wiley (98,014 votes) and Kathryn Garcia (97,093 votes) held the first, second and third place spots in early returns reported shortly after 10:30 PM.

Late Tuesday, Adams, was out pacing Wiley, a former aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had 20.99 percent of the vote, and Garcia, a former Sanitation Commissioner, who netted 20.79 percent of the vote.