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Advocates, opponents comment on RCV during hearing
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR ULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021 15
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
In 2019, 70% of voters in
New York City approved a ballot
measure that would implement
ranked-choice voting —
which allowed voters to rank
up to fi ve candidates in order
of preference — to decide primary
and special elections for
the offi ces of mayor, public advocate,
comptroller, borough
presidents and City Council
that took place in June.
But following a series of
counting errors during the
June 22 primary, criticisms
of how the city Board of Elections
(BOE) failed to educate
voters on ranked-choice voting
(RCV) and potential legislation
calling for a repeal of
ranked-choice voting — lawmakers
are now discussing
the future of RCV in its local
elections.
On July 19, the state Assembly
Elections Committee
heard testimonies regarding
the city’s fi rst rollout of
ranked-choice voting where
feedback was divided on who
or what was to blame for errors
during the June primary.
For some, fl aws and errors
were the fault of the city
Board of Elections’ management
of ranked-choice voting
and its failure to educate NYC
voters in the months prior to
the primary
During the hearing, Esmeralda
Simmons, a civil
rights attorney and executive
director of the Center for Law
and Social Justice at Medgar
Evers College, said that the
BOE failed to instruct voters
and its own elections offi cials
on the ranked-choice voting
system.
Simmons took particular
issue with an error that led to
a discount of 135,000 test ballots
that temporarily resulting
in a large discrepancy in
the Democratic mayoral primary
vote counts on June 29.
The city’s voting software
includes Cast Voter Records
(CVR) which produces ballot
images that ultimately tabulates
unoffi cial race results.
In a now-deleted June
29 statement on Twitter acknowledging
a counting error,
the city BOE stated that
during the fi rst extraction
of tallies from the CVR, both
test and election results were
pulled.
In a clarifi cation on June
29, the board said human error
led to the discrepancy
stemming from pre-election
testing that was not cleared
from the fi le used for the initial
ranked-choice tally. The
tallies were removed, according
to the board, before results
were posted on Wednesday.
“Everyone knows that
you cannot get a result if you
don’t put the data in,” Simmons
said. “It was an error. It
should’ve never happened.”
But Simmons also praised
the work done by local community
groups in spreading
the word.
“That’s because New Yorkers
are smart, and if somebody
tells them that they can
have fi ve bites of the apple,
then most people will take fi ve
bites,” Simmons said. “Some
people are used to only taking
one bite and only take one
bite, but I bet you the second
time ranked-choice voting
goes around … they’re going
to take fi ve bites.”
Assembly Elections Committee
members like Democratic
Assemblyman Robert
Carroll, of Brooklyn, said
that the issues and errors that
transpired during the June
primary election were a result
of the BOE’s incompetence.
“The problem with June’s
primary election was not
ranked-choice voting,” said
Carroll. “It was the incompetence
of the Board of Elections.”
Carroll said that the formation
of a non-partisan
Board of Elections would go a
long way in “curing the ills”
of election mismanagement
on a local level.
In exit polls conducted by
Common Cause and Rank the
Vote NYC, 78% of the nearly
1,700 Democratic voters surveyed
said they understood
ranked-choice voting “extremely
or very well.”
An analysis of the 2021
mayoral primary results
from Citizens Union released
Monday found that just under
15% of voters across the city
had a ballot that didn’t affect
the fi nal round of the Democratic
primary.
The report concluded that
compared to the 2013 Democratic
mayoral primary, voters
may have had a more direct
infl uence in the results
of the 2021 Democratic mayoral
primary.
In 2013, roughly 33% of voters
cast their ballots for candidates
who were not among
the top two vote-getters.
In 2021, only 140,167 voters
– or 14.9% – did not participate
in the fi nal round of
RCV, meaning they did not
include eventual winner Eric
Adams or runner-up Kathryn
Garcia in their ranked
ballots.
But for others, rankedchoice
voting is a system that
leads to voter suppression
through invalid or underwritten
ballots.
“It is sophisticated voter
suppression, but it’s still
voter suppression,” said Rev.
Kirsten John Foy, founder
of the Arc of Justice. “What
played out on Election Day
as I observed and members
of my organization, I believe,
was the anticipated result of
a nefarious, intentional plan
to dilute the vote of African
Americans.”
City Councilman I.
Daneek Miller, a Democrat
who also co-chairs the New
York City Council Black, Latino,
and Asian Caucus, said
that the ranked-choice rollout
effort didn’t reach certain
communities such as seniors,
non-English speakers
and people without internet
access.
Most voters surveyed indicated
they ranked at least
three candidates in the mayoral
primary, and 95% of voters
surveyed found the ballot
simple to complete — fi ndings
that held true across ethnic
groups.
Miller is also sponsoring
a bill that would repeal
ranked-choice voting from
the City Charter and put it up
to a new vote in November.
Advocates of rankedchoice
voting said that the
system met its designed goal
of “building coalitions” and
producing a more democratic
election.
“The fact is that rankedchoice
voting has delivered
on its promise to bring about
a more democratic election,”
said Debbie Louis, the deputy
organizing director of Rank
the Vote NYC. “It’s insulting
that our lawmakers, some
of our candidates, people opposing
RCV are saying that,
pretty much, Black people or
people of color are stupid and
we don’t understand RCV.”
Data from Citizens Union
showed that the number of
candidates doubled in 2021
from 2013, with 372 people
running for local offi ce this
year, compared to 172 in the
last large competitive city
election.
Additionally, more women
and people of color – around
35 Democratic primary winners
who identifi ed as people
of color – won their respective
races.
The Board of Elections has
not publicly released any offi -
cial data on ballot counts. Representatives
from the Board
of Election were not present
during the hearing, despite
being invited to testify.
The state Senate plans to
hold a separate hearing next
week solely on the state Board
of Elections.
Advocates and opponents alike, weighed in on the rollout of New York City’s ranked-choice voting system that
was used in the June 22, 2021, primaries.
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