Rangel Maintains Narrow Lead as More Ballots Are Counted Representative Charles B. Rangel's narrow lead over his main primary challenger, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, widened slightly on Thursday as the New York City Board of Elections began counting absentee and affidavit ballots from last week's five-way Democratic primary in the state's 13th Congressional District. At the same time, Mr. Espaillat's campaign won a legal victory when a State Supreme Court justice in the Bronx ordered the city's Board of Elections not to transmit the results to the state's Board of Elections until Mr. Espaillat's lawyers had a chance to argue in court their contention that some of the candidate's supporters had their votes suppressed. Mr. Rangel led by nearly 1,900 votes on election night, but it turned out later that many districts had not been counted. The city's Board of Elections released updated numbers over the weekend, and Mr. Rangel's lead dropped to 802 votes. By Thursday night, his lead had risen to 945 votes, and the board said it would continue counting on Friday. Both candidates are closely monitoring the counting of absentee and affidavit ballots. By 10 a.m. Thursday, a crowd of about 50 people - members of the news media as well as supporters of the two candidates - had gathered in the hallway of the board's office on Varick Street in Manhattan, waiting to be allowed into a small room where board employees would open the ballots under the watchful eyes of observers from each campaign. Once inside, reporters were told to stand at one end of the room, where a half-dozen television cameras jostled for positions to shoot the first ballots being opened. Photographers and camera people were warned not to photograph any actual ballots, and late in the morning, the board's deputy chief clerk ordered a photographer from The New York Post to leave after he appeared to do so. As the morning wore on, the monotony of the ballot-opening contrasted with the sharp suspense with which it was watched by reporters and the campaigns" representatives. At two tables, employees from the Board of Elections sat opposite observers for each campaign. The Rangel campaign also had a lawyer at each table. A staff member read aloud how many affidavit, absentee, military, federal or special ballots had been cast in a particular electoral district, then opened the ballots and briefly held them up to be viewed by the observers. After the ballots were opened, they were taken in batches to another room to be scanned, also in the presence of observers from each campaign. With the counting under way, Justice John W. Carter of State Supreme Court in the Bronx, in response to a petition filed by the Espaillat campaign on Tuesday, signed an order giving himself the power to rule on the validity of any ballots cast in the race and prohibiting the city's Board of Elections from transmitting the final results to the state before the judge approved the vote tally. The campaigns were ordered to appear in court next Wednesday, the day before Mr. Espaillat must decide whether to file petitions for re-election to the State Senate. State law does not allow a person to run for more than one office at the same time, so Mr. Espaillat may have to choose by next Thursday between continuing to contest the Congressional election and pursuing re-election.