Last year, Elizabeth Crowley finished second in a special election for Queens borough president, losing to Donovan Richards by seven points.

In a rematch Tuesday night, she nearly closed that gap. Crowley finished the night barely one percentage point behind Richards, trailing by a margin of 2,076 votes. But there at least 27,800 absentee ballots yet to be counted.

"This was an incredibly close election. I'm encouraged by the results,” Crowley, a former City Councilwoman, said in an interview Wednesday.

Critically, the third-place finisher, Jimmy Van Bramer, finished with almost 18 percent, or about 28,000 votes. Under the new ranked-choice voting system, those votes will now go to the second-choice candidate on each ballot. And Richards believes most Van Bramer voters ranked him second.

"Remember, me and Jimmy Van Bramer were both members of the progressive caucus together. I was the co-chair, he's a founder. So naturally you're going to find some synergy,” Richards said.

The closest race of all is the Republican primary on Staten Island, where former Congressman Vito Fossella finished primary night ahead of City Councilman Steven Matteo by a paper-thin margin of 211 votes, or one percentage point.

He got a boost in the closing days of the race with endorsements from former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

"I want to thank publicly President Donald Trump for weighing in,” Fossella said Wednesday. “I spoke with him over the weekend. He could not have been more gracious and generous and strong in his support."

Whoever prevails in that race will almost certainly face the leading vote-getter on the Democratic side, former Congressional candidate Mark Murphy. He had a commanding lead, with 46 percent of the first-place vote, 25 points ahead of activist and small business owner Lorraine Honor.

In the Bronx, City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson is well positioned to become the borough's first female borough president, having finished with a five-point lead over Councilman Fernando Cabrera in the initial tally. In Brooklyn, City Councilman Antonio Reynoso is in the driver's seat with a nine-point lead.

In Manhattan, Councilman Mark Levine earned the most first-place votes, but only finished three points ahead of state Senator Brad Hoylman. And at least 32,100 absentee ballots are still up for grabs, plus the 90,000 votes that went to a one of the other five candidates in the field. How those voters ranked Levine and Hoylman could swing the outcome.

It’s “premature to declare victory I think for anybody at this point,” Levine said. “All I can say is I'm feeling really grateful and really confident today."