Confused by Ranked Voting? Here’s an explainer
BY HAZEL SHAHGHOLI AND
MARK HALLUM
Primary and special elections
will never be the same
with ranked choice voting
going into effect in 2021 and
seeing as primaries are the
deciding factor in Democratheavy
New York City, it’s going
to be important.
Not only will voters in the
fi ve boroughs be dealing with
a new a ballot format that allows
them to choose from
most to least favorite for offi
ce, residents will have their
work cut out for them in deciding
since some districts
are seeing dozens of candidates
running in term limited
districts.
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 in upcoming elections
will give voters fi ve
choices to either give a tier
one rank to fi ve. However, if
they wish to simply only vote
for one candidate and leave
the rest of the bubbles blank.
If none of the candidates
get by with a 50% majority,
the candidate with the least
rank is eliminated and second
choice votes are counted
until a winner is determined.
According to the city Campaign
Finance Board, giving
one candidate ranks one
through fi ve will result in not
have a second choice and giving
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 36 ARCH 12-18, 2021 BTR
multiple candidates top
choice will render your ballot
invalid by the Board of Elections.
The fi rst election which
will use ranked choice voting
will be on Feb. 22, a special
election that will fi ll the void
left by former Councilman
Rory Lancman when he resigned
September to work for
Governor Andrew Cuomo,
then will come the June 22
Democratic Primary for the
mayor’s offi ce.
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 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 offi cials argued that
with the lack of educational
outreach on the new ballot
system would put New Yorkers
who are not profi cient 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.
A ballot during the primary vote on June 23, 2020 at I.S. 70 in Chelsea. Photo by Mark Hallum
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