Photo credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP

With absentee ballots still outstanding, primary night didn’t have the usual pageantry of called races and victory and concession speeches.

But it still brought the drama, including the potential emergence of a new political star from New York. 

On Wednesday, progressive challenger Jamaal Bowman declared victory over 31-year incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel.

Bowman led Engel 62 percent to 35 percent in in-person votes -- or about 11,800 in the Bronx and Westchester district.

Engel didn’t concede, saying absentee ballots must be tallied.

“Any declarative statement on the outcome of this race right now is premature and undermines the democratic process," his campaign said. 

On the Bronx side of the district, nearly 25,000 absentee ballots were mailed out. 

On the Westchester side, more than 41,000 were sent out.

That’s not to say all -- or even most -- will be returned.

Engel has not made a public appearance since he voted Tuesday in Riverdale.

Bowman signaled confidence in a Co-Op City visit Wednesday.

“I look forward to serving this community starting today," he said. "The full results aren’t in, but I’m going to begin to behave as if we’re already there, because the more opportunity and time we have to do the work, the better.”

Meanwhile, absentee ballots look set to decide the fate of Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who led challenger Suraj Patel by just under 650 in-person votes.

More than 109,000 absentees ballots were mailed out to her Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens district -- the great majority of them to Manhattan voters.

In an email Wednesday, she told supporters, “We have won this race.”

But Patel was also expressing optimism. 

Additionally, primary day wasn’t without reports of snafus from long lines to missing ballot pages, leading to concerns about readiness for the presidential election.

“We have to make sure the infrastructure is there and the resources are there for people to access that right to vote, we didn’t see that all yesterday," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said at a news conference. "We know November’s coming, exponentially more people. We want to make sure we get it right.”

In the five boroughs, more than 718,000 state and local primary absentee ballots were mailed out in total.

We won’t know how many will be returned. 

The city's boards of elections won’t begin counting them until next Wednesday, the deadline for them to arrive at the BOE offices.