Harlem residents make voices heard on Primary Day
BY KEVIN DUGGAN AND
ARIEL PACHECO
At P.S. 153/the Adam Clayton Powell
Elementary School polling site on
147th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
in Harlem, voters streamed in alongside
children attending school on June 22.
This is the fi rst time ranked-choice voting
is being used in New York City, and
its implementation has been a hot topic
in the fi nal days of the contest. Alexandra
Johnson, 27, a poll worker at P.S. 153, said
ranked-choice voting has given some voters
issues.
“I heard a few people saying it was hard
in passing,” she said.
Johnson arrived at 6 a.m. and will be
there all day until polls close at 9 p.m. She
said that there was been a steady stream of
people voting.
“It’s not like how it is on a national
level, but there has been a steady stream
of people all morning,” said Johnson.
Voters of all ages were at the elementary
school turned poll site. Besides mayor, the
electorate is being asked to cast ballots for
comptroller, borough presidents, various
City Council seats and the Manhattan
District Attorney, and civil court judges.
Still, many showed up to mainly focus on
the mayoral race.
“I woke up early and came to vote for
Maya Wiley today,” said Adrian Benjamin,
23. “I like her vision for the city and wanted
to support her.””
Benjamin added that he also ranked two
A bustling poll site at P.S. 153 in Harlem on June 22, 2021.
other candidates for mayor, Eric Adams
and Andrew Yang.
“I thought there was a good crop of
candidates in this election so it was nice to
have choices,” said Benjamin.
While many voters choose to support
candidates based on their policies and
plans, some like David Sanchez, 33, choose
to vote for candidates who represent them
ethnically.
“I only ranked Eric Adams number one,”
said Sanchez. “I think we need a Black man
PHOTO BY ARIEL PACHECO
in offi ce, I think that’s important to have
someone who can represent me and people
who look like me.”
Sanchez said that the other races weren’t
as important to him, but he voted for the
candidates he felt would do the best job for
the city and represent the voters effectively.
“There are a lot of issues people are
dealing with and we need leadership that’s
going to fi x things.’
Chris Urgiles, 46, is another voter who
came to vote for Wiley. He says having a
progressive in the mayor’s offi ce is crucial
to the City’s recovery from the pandemic.
“We were hit hard and I just feel like
we need big ideas to not only get us back
to where we were but for us to also move
forward too.”
New York City voters headed to the polls
to vote in the primaries on Election Day,
June 22, casting their ballot for who will
likely be the next mayor along with several
other local political races.
Almost 300,000 people already voted
before Tuesday, including 191,197 who
early voted from June 12-20 and 90,763
who returned their absentee ballots, according
to the city’s Board of Elections.
This election marks the citywide debut
Ranked Choice Voting, which allows voters
to rank up to fi ve candidates in order of
preference for the municipal races.
If a candidate gets more than 50% of
fi rst-choice votes, they are automatically
the winner.
If no one earns more than half the votes,
BOE will continue counting in rounds and
at the end of each round, the person with
the fewest votes is eliminated, a process
that continues until there are only two
candidates left and the politician with the
most votes wins.
The new system and the large amount
of absentee ballots mean that it will take
weeks before the city knows who won the
elections.
BOE doesn’t expect the fi nal results until
some time around July 12, almost three
weeks from now.
Final election results will not be known for weeks
BY ARIEL PACHECO
While the New York City primary
election has passed, the offi cial
results will not be in until the
anticipated date of July 12.
The initial preliminary unoffi cial results
released Tuesday night only included ballots
cast during early voting and on election
day. Absentee ballots will not be a part of
the initial tally.
The introduction of ranked-choice
voting (RCV) has created a new wrinkle
when it comes to the timeline. Only voters’
fi rst-choice will be counted immediately.
The Board of Elections (BOE) plans to
count the rest of the votes on June 29, but
those will also only include early voting and
election day ballots. The Campaign Finance
Board (CFB) is preaching patience.
“With Ranked Choice Voting, we will
be getting our results from the Board
of Elections in a new way,” said CFB
Spokesperson Matthew Sollars. “This will
A polling site on special election day in Far Rockaway, Queens, on Feb. 23.
take cooperation from everyone involved,
including the media and candidates, to
respect the counting process and to accurately
refl ect the unoffi cial nature of vote
PHOTO BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
tallies until the BOE declares an offi cial
winner.”
They also plan to release updates on the
absentee ballots one week after that on July
6. Complete results should be available by July
12, but there is no set date. An offi cial result
will be made when every vote is counted.
“Right now, we’re at a little over 80,000
absentee ballots,” said BOE Spokesperson
Valerie Vazquez.
As for the Republican mayoral primary,
the votes will be much easier to sort
through as there are only two candidates
running. The Republican winner should be
known by the end of tomorrow.
“While Ranked Choice Voting is new for
New York City voters, it has been used for
many years around the country,” said Sollars.
“The Board of Elections has developed
procedures for counting, tabulating, and
releasing the results that align with established
best practices. New Yorkers should
be confi dent that their primary votes will
count and be counted.”
Notably, both the Manhattan District
Attorney race and all judicial contests are
run through the state voting laws and do
not involve RCV.
Schneps Media June 24, 2021 3