In the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, Freddy Frerrer needed to get 40% of the vote to avoid getting drawn into a runoff with Anthony Weiner. With 100% of the precincts reporting, Frerrer stands at 39.95%. Unless Frerrer accepts the runoff or Weiner gives in, this is when they start getting into counting absentees, challenging individual votes, and going machine to machine to check the numbers. Elections are messy business, as they say, but there’s not a whole lot of room for error in this one and you have to hope that the NYC election equipment (and election procedures) will withstand the scrutiny. Or, alternatively, we’ll have a nice little microcosmatic example of the need for election reform.

UPDATE: Even with Frerrer .05% shy, Weiner just conceded.