New year, new ballot: here’s how ranked
choice voting will work in New York
By 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
five boroughs be dealing with a
new a ballot format that allows
them to choose from most to
least favorite for office, 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 five choices
to either give a tier one rank
to five. 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
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Finance Board, giving
one candidate ranks one
through five will result in not
have a second choice and giving
multiple candidates top
choice will render your ballot
invalid by the Board of Elections.
The first election which will
use ranked choice voting will
be on Feb. 22, a special election
that will fill 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 office.
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
People fi ll in ballots at a voting booth during the 2020 U.S.
presidential election on election day in New Richmond,
Ohio, U.S. Nov. 3, 2020. REUTERS/Jeffrey Dean
have been endemic with City
Council debating in December
whether or not to postpone the
rollout until outreach has been
made more effective.
“ T he id e a
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.
(Screenshot courtesy of the New York City Campaign Finance Board)
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