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Ranked Choice Voting put to test
Here’s what you need to know ahead of primary early voting
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR UNE 11-17, 2021 15
BY ARIEL PACHECO
Call it the one person, up to fi ve
votes doctrine.
That’s after New York City is poised
to roll out ranked-choice voting (RCV)
in a big way in the June 2021 primary
elections including for the offi ces of
mayor, public advocate, comptroller,
borough president, and City Council
elections.
RCV allows for voters to rank up to
fi ve candidates per offi ce in order of
preference rather than voting for just
one candidate. If a candidate receives
more than 50 percent of the fi rst-choice
votes they are the winner. If no candidate
earns more than 50 percent of the
fi rst-choice votes, then the votes will
then be tallied in rounds.
At the conclusion of each round, the
candidate with the fewest votes will
be eliminated. If the eliminated candidate
had been the fi rst choice on a
ballot, the vote then transfers to whoever
was the second-choice on the ballot.
The process continues until there
are two candidates left. The candidate
with the most votes is the winner.
Voters are allowed to vote for just
one candidate – dubbed a bullet ballot
– and leave the rest of the ballot blank
but are only allowed to vote for one
candidate for each column. If a voter
ranks the same candidate as their
fi rst, second, third, etc. choice, it will
still only count as one vote as it is the
same as leaving the second and third
choice blank.
Voters also do not have to vote for
fi ve candidates. Voters will also still
be able to vote for write-in candidates.
There is a “write-in line” on the ballot
with an oval that will indicate where
the voter wants to rank the write-in
candidates.
RCV is a variation of the one person,
one vote doctrine fi rst coined in
Britain in 1880, but in America it relates
more to redistricting congressional
lines. In 1964, Wesberry v. Sanders,
the U.S. Supreme Court declared
that equality of voting – one person,
one vote – means that “the weight and
worth of the citizens’ votes as nearly
as is practicable must be the same.”
and ruled that states must also draw
federal congressional districts containing
roughly equal represented
populations.
RCV, on the other hand, was
implemented with the argument to
help improve the representation of
the voting system while also helping
to cut down on negative campaigning
between candidates. It allows
voters to have more say in who their
elected officials are, the argument
holds.
Ranked-choice voting is already
in use in many places across
the country such as Minneapolis,
Maine, and Oakland. The reviews of
RCV in some of these municipalities
have been mixed.
City voters approved RCV in a
2019 ballot measure with 73.5 percent
of people voting yes for rankedchoice
voting.
RCV was already utilized recently
in a few special city council
elections in Queens and the Bronx.
While there were no reported complaints
of fraud, it took weeks past
the election day to get results. Voters
will likely see a similar scenario
play out in many upcoming primary
races with no determined winner.
Early primary voting is slated
to start this Saturday, June 12 and
run through Sunday, June 20. The
primary is slated for Tuesday, June
22.
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