A squeaker (maybe): The latest vote count shows Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia or Maya Wiley could be the next mayor

Shred those headlines about Eric Adams almost certainly being the next mayor. After 11 rounds of counting the second- and third- and fourth- and fifth-place choices of voters whose favored candidates were eliminated, Adams stands just 15,908 votes ahead of Kathryn Garcia — with a mountain of 124,574 absentee ballots yet to tally.

Complicating matters further, in round 10 of the tally, Garcia barely eked past Maya Wiley by 3,806 votes, which means that when those absentees get factored in, Wiley could leapfrog Garcia and wind up in the final two, with a chance to eclipse Adams.

This is ranked-choice voting in action, and it’s overall a very good thing. By design, the system doesn’t care who has the most first-place votes; it cares who is the last one standing with support from the most voters, including voters whose higher-choice candidates fell by the wayside.

From left to right: Eric Adams, Maya Wiley, and Kathryn Garcia (New York Daily News)

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But there are some major questions that need answering stat, or public confidence will erode. Primarily, the terribly opaque board must quickly and clearly explain why the totals of in-person votes it released yesterday were up a hard-to-fathom 140,000 votes greater than primary-night totals that supposedly included almost all early voting and primary day balloting. (A cryptic tweet acknowledging “a discrepancy” and pleading for patience won’t do it.)

And while they used the bulk elimination method to simultaneously knock out mayoral also-rans Scott Stringer, Shaun Donovan and Dianne Morales, the partisan hacks should of at least explained that. And where are City Council and borough president ranked-choice results? Nowhere to be found.

Already, the board erred by waiting one long week to divulge any ranked-choice info. It should’ve provided the public with the full data set on a rolling basis as early as last Wednesday, when it began processing the early-vote and primary-day ballots. Now, rather than repeating that mistake, it should offer daily updates on how absentee ballots are being tallied instead of waiting another week. Transparency is imperative. This is democratic sausage being made.