Queens Borough President and candidate for district attorney Melinda Katz arrives at her polling place in Queens last month. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP

The state Board of Elections on Monday certified Melinda Katz as the Democratic nominee for Queens district attorney, setting up the next phase of the contentious race to play out in a Kew Gardens courtroom.

The official certification Monday afternoon followed a two-week manual recount in the primary between Katz, the Queens borough president, and Tiffany Cabán, a 31-year-old public defender and political upstart who ran on a progressive platform of criminal justice reforms.

Katz, who entered the recount earlier this month with just a 16-vote advantage over Cabán, saw her lead extended to about 60 votes late last week, when all ballots deemed eligible by the BOE had been reviewed. On Monday, she called for unity ahead of an expected legal challenge from Cabán's camp, set to begin on Wednesday.

Attorneys for Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Marty Connor, foreground right, and Michael Reich, background right, examine a ballot during the vote recount in the primary election for Queens County District Attorney between Katz and public defender Tiffany Cabán in Queens last week. Photo: Richard Drew/AP

“While it is everyone's right to avail themselves of the judicial process, I urge all participants in this hard-fought election to come together and join me in beginning the hard work of reforming the criminal justice system in Queens,” Katz said in a statement. “This is a major moment for this borough, and it will take the support of all its residents to make this effort a success. I will be spending the months ahead preparing for this critical task.”

Cabán's campaign, however, said it would fight to restore more than 100 ballots that it claimed were improperly thrown out due to errors by the BOE and “arcane technicalities that are open to legal review.”

“The certification made by the Board of Elections signals the beginning of our campaign's legal case to rehabilitate wrongly invalidated ballots,” Cabán's campaign attorney, Jerry Goldfeder, said in a statement.

New York Supreme Court Justice John G. Ingram, who has been brought in from Brooklyn to hear the case, previously said he would not involve the court in the dispute until a winner was certified. He retains full plenary jurisdiction over the ballots and can make determinations as to their validity.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday in Queens.

Monica Klein, a spokeswoman for the Cabán campaign, said Monday's certification was just a “formality” that would allow the legal challenge to move forward.

“Eligible voters' ballots must not be disqualified due to the BOE's failure to provide them with adequate assistance and guidance at polling sites. Until then, the outcome of this election remains undetermined,” she said. “We once again urge the Katz campaign to join our efforts to protect voting rights in Queens as we head to court.”

Cabán's campaign had expected certification to occur Tuesday, during a scheduled meeting of the BOE commissioners, but the board decided late last week to convene a day early. Ingram also changed the court date, initially scheduled for Aug. 6, to Wednesday.

Katz claimed victory for the second time last week, following the conclusion of the recount.

An election night tally had put Cabán up by as many as 1,100 votes June 25. However, a canvass of paper ballots a week later propelled Katz to more than a dozen-vote advantage July 3, prompting her first claim of victory, even though the margin was well within the range to trigger an automatic recount under New York law.

During the campaign, Katz picked up endorsements from most of the city's Democratic establishment, as well as from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other leaders throughout the state. Cabán, on the other hand, ran with much support from outside the borough, picking up the endorsements of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner and two Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts.

Among her proposals, Cabán has vowed to use her office to attack the root causes of crime, eliminate cash bail and decriminalize sex work, instead focusing on pimps and those who solicit prostitutes.

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