What you need to know about ranked-choice voting
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BY MARK HALLUM
Primary and special elections
will never be the same with rankedchoice
voting going into effect in
2021. With primary elections serving
as the deciding factor in Democratheavy
New York City, the change to
voting is going to be important.
Not only will voters in the five
boroughs be dealing with a new a
ballot format that allows them to
rank their top five candidates from
most to least favorite, residents will
have their work cut out for them in
deciding since some districts have
dozens of candidates running.
The district represented by Councilman
Costa Constantinides for example
has up to 12 candidates while
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer’s
district will get to choose from 19
individuals.
What will the ballot look like?
Ballots will allow voters to rank
their choices one through five. However,
if they wish to simply only vote
for one candidate and leave the rest of
the bubbles blank, they can do that.
If none of the candidates get by
with a 50 percent majority, the candidate
with the least first rank votes is
eliminated and second choice votes
on the eliminated ballot are counted
as first rank votes. If a candidate
then passes the 50 percent threshold,
they are named the winner. If not,
the processes repeats until a winner
is determined.
Voters’ ballots will be eliminated
if they choose the same candidate for
all five ranks. Additionally, a ballot
will be deemed invalid if a voter
gives multiple candidates their top
rank, according to the city Campaign
Finance Board.
The first election that will use
ranked-choice voting will be on Feb.
2, a special election to fill the void
left by former Councilman Rory
Lancman when he resigned in September
to work for Governor Andrew
Cuomo.
What are some obstacles to
ranked-choice voting?
Ranked-choice voting itself was
adopted by voters in 2019 under a
referendum that that was designed
to prevent runoff elections. But nonetheless,
questions of educating the
public on the new system have been
endemic with the City Council debating
in December whether or not to
postpone the rollout until outreach
has been made more effective.
“The idea of ranked-choice voting
was to create a system that didn’t
require a runoff. And some argued
it, you know, would engage people
more. Others said it wouldn’t, but,
you know, the people did vote for it in
a referendum,” Mayor Bill de Blasio
said in early December. “But when
you hear community leaders saying,
look, we’re not getting the education
we need, we have a major election in
six months and people don’t know
how to use this yet, that’s a cause for
real concern.”
After presenting their concerns
about ranked-choice voting in February
2020 some elected officials argued
that with the lack of educational
outreach on the new ballot system
would put New Yorkers who are not
proficient in English at a disadvantage,
and in December, launched a
lawsuit to block the plan.
The state supreme court rejected
the bid to put off ranked-choice
voting.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by email
at mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
or by phone at (718) 260–4564.
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