Kathryn Garcia, 51, the former sanitation commissioner, trailed Eric Adams by just one percentage point after after New York City’s Board of Elections released a new count on Tuesday evening that included tens of thousands of absentee ballots.

After beginning her campaign in relative obscurity, she surged late in the race, and earlier election results show her winning most of Manhattan, as well as pockets of Brooklyn.

Ms. Garcia’s campaign was based on the idea that her long experience in city government made her the ideal person to lead New York to recovery. She maintained she was the go-to crisis manager that Mayor Bill de Blasio called on to handle everything from lead paint in public housing to the emergency distribution of food during the pandemic.

In the last days of the race, she campaigned with Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur who had been the front-runner early in the contest. The move seems to have helped Ms. Garcia pick up support from Yang voters.

Without evidence, Mr. Adams and his supporters characterized the alliance as an effort to stop Black and Latino officials from being elected, a charge Ms. Garcia rejected.

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