Rangel increases lead over challenger

Rep. Charles Rangel widened his lead over challenger Sen. Adriano Espaillat to 989 votes as the New York City Board of Elections finished counting more than 2,000 paper ballots Friday in the hotly contested Democratic primary battle for Rangel's seat in Congress.

Election inspectors have to finish going through hundreds of additional paper ballots that were initially ruled invalid before the result can be certified, but officials said that process was unlikely to shift the outcome.

Rangel led by 802 votes based on machine tallies. The paper ballots include absentees and votes from individuals whose eligibility could not be determined at the polls on Election Day.

To get an automatic recount, Espaillat would have to pull within 0.5 percent of Rangel -- about 215 votes.

Rangel, 82, running in a reshaped district that is majority Latino, has faced the toughest challenge to his four decades in office from Espaillat, striving to become the nation's first Dominican-born congressman.

Espaillat has filed a lawsuit alleging efforts to suppress the Hispanic vote on Election Day and asking a judge to oversee a recount, and potentially order a new election.