By the slimmest of margins, Victor Pichardo emerged with a victory in the heated and congested special election for the 86th Assembly District, which includes University Heights and Morris Heights. Though the Board of Elections finally declared him the winner by 72 votes last week, Pichardo did not emerge unscathed and a lawsuit looms.

Second place finisher Hector Ramirez said he will file a civil suit against Pichardo, the Board of Elections, State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assemblyman Carl Heastie, saying they are all part of a corrupt political machine that conspired to rig the election in Pichardo’s favor. Ramirez, of course, was backed by Heastie and the Bronx Democratic machine back in 2008 when he lost the primary to Nelson Castro.

Castro then went on to take office, get indicted on perjury charges, become a government informant and help build a case against fellow Bronx assembly member Eric Stevenson. He resigned from office earlier this year and is now the star witness in the case against Stevenson.

Ramirez says he has “no doubt” he won the election and is not going down without a fight. Although his case will be difficult to prove, there was evidence of irregularities during voting in the district on primary day.

For one, Pichardo’s mother worked one of the polling sites in the district, at PS 33, and Ramirez says she worked on Pichardo’s behalf. (Pichardo says his mother was only doing her job.) And at least one site, all of the levers for 86th Assembly candidates were broken, except for Pichardo’s. It’s unclear how long that machine was in use before it was pulled.

In an interview with the Daily News, Pichardo dismissed the allegations and said he’s moving on, looking forward to working on behalf of his new constituents.

Pichardo faces two opponents in the upcoming general election on Nov. 5: Rene L. Santos of the Conservative Party and Republican candidate Jose Marte Sr.

Edtior’s note: This story was originally published in the Oct. 3-16 print edition of the Norwood News.