FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 17, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Queens pols sue city, claiming it’s not ready for ranked-choice voting
BY JACOB KAYE
jkaye@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Two Queens legislators have joined
a lawsuit aimed at stopping the use of
ranked-choice voting in the Feb. 2 special
election in northeast Queens.
City Council members Adrienne
Adams and I. Daneek Miller have joined
four other legislators — each members
of the council’s Black, Latino and Asian
Caucus — in a suit against the city, the
city’s Board of Elections and Campaign
Finance Board. Th e suit requests that
ranked-choice voting – which is set to
be implemented for the fi rst time in New
York City during the special election to
fi ll Rory Lancman’s seat in District 24 in
February – be paused and reassessed.
Th e complaint, fi led in New York
Supreme Court on Tuesday, Dec. 8, alleges
the city has violated its charter in multiple
ways by failing to adequately prepare for
the rollout of ranked-choice voting.
According to the complaint, the city has
failed to educate voters on the new electoral
process, has not kept to a “timely”
schedule in preparing new voting
machines and has not done enough to
ensure that all limited English profi cient
voters will have access to translators at
polling sites.
“Th e physical and fi scal limitations
placed on the city by the COVID-19 pandemic
have severely hindered its ability
to put ranked choice into eff ect without
risking the disenfranchisement of our
New Yorkers of color, seniors and limited
English speakers,” the Black, Latino
and Asian Caucus said in a statement
Th ursday. “Th e city cannot aff ord to risk
failing to accurately count a single ballot
cast by these voters because of a hasty
and poorly assembled implementation of
ranked-choice voting.”
Adams, the only Queens council member
running for reelection in 2021 unopposed,
said that introducing rankedchoice
voting in the special election would
be “irresponsible.”
“Preparations for implementation
have been lackluster at best,” Adams
said. “The outstanding logistical concerns
surrounding a robust public education
campaign decry the need to hit
pause on ranked-choice voting to preserve
equality for all voters.”
Supporters of ranked-choice voting
— which saw broad support from voters
as a ballot measure in 2019 — say
that the lawsuit is unfounded and frivolous,
and that the new system will
give voice to those who have historically
lacked representation in the halls of
government.
“I understand the complainants’
concern, but I think the money they
are spending on this lawsuit, they could
spend on educating the voters they say
they’re concerned about,” said Moumita
Ahmed, a candidate for City Council
in February’s special election in
District 24.
Supporters of ranked-choice voting
— including Ahmed, who told QNS
she’s excited to be a candidate in the
city’s first run at the new process —
believe the ballot system is more democratic
and more fiscally responsible.
Under ranked-choice voting, voters
rank five candidates in order. If a candidate
is ranked as the first choice on
over 50 percent of the ballots, they win.
If no one passes the 50 percent threshold,
the last-place candidate is eliminated
and all the ballots where that
candidate ranked first go to the candidate
the voter ranked second. The process
continues until a candidate reaches
the majority.
“It’s more democratic because now we
are looking at a candidate who has gotten
the majority of the votes,” Ahmed said.
Not only do its supporters believe the
system to be more democratic, eliminating
ranked-choice voting now, they
say, would be outright undemocratic.
“There was no conspiracy to pass
RCV; there was an election,” said
Susan Lerner, the executive director of
Common Cause/NY, a nonprofit that
advocated for the passage of rankedchoice
voting in 2019. “The decision to
put RCV on the ballot was not conducted
in a backroom but in broad daylight
by the Charter Review Commission —
appointed by the City Council, among
others — which held numerous public
hearings over the course of months.
Seeking to invalidate the results of a
decisive, free and fair election is an
attack on our democracy.”
When it comes to educating voters,
Ahmed said that not trusting people
to understand ranked-choice is a “little
patronizing.”
“It’s saying that voters are too stupid
to understand how it works,” Ahmed
said. “It’s not that difficult.”
The Campaign Finance Board rejected
the allegation that voter education
has been lacking and that the city is not
prepared for ranked-choice voting.
“Th e Campaign Finance Board is dedicated
to helping New Yorkers fully participate
in ranked-choice voting, which
is designed to give all voters a bigger
say in who gets elected to city offi ce,”
the board said in a statement. “We have
been working on our ranked-choice voting
educational eff orts all year.”
According to Ahmed, the burden to
educate voters should be nothing new
to elected officials, who often have to
explain new policy ideas to voters and
keep voters informed about their work.
“As an elected official your job is
to educate people,” Ahmed said. “If
someone is an elected official who
doesn’t know how to educate people,
or to reach people, that says something
about them and their ability to actually
govern.”
Queens offi cer who spied for China denied pretrial release: Feds
BY JACOB KAYE
on activities of Tibetans living
him to determine
jkaye@schnepsmedia.com
in the New York City area, according to
his “history and
@QNS
the feds. Th e naturalized U.S. citizen has
characte r i s -
also been charged with wire fraud, false
tics.” Lawyers
Th e alleged Chinese spy who worked as
statements and obstruction of an offi cial
for the defendant
a community aff airs offi cer in a northeast
proceeding.
also
Queens police precinct will be jailed until
Angwang’s lawyers argued that their
argued that the
his trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce for the
defendant wouldn’t skip town before
court had committed
Eastern District of New York announced
his trial in an appeal fi led in court
several
on Friday.
earlier this year. Additionally, they
factual errors related
Baimadajie Angwang, a community
argued that the court had committed
to an interview
aff airs offi cer in the NYPD’s 111th
a legal error in
with
Precinct, appealed the court’s decision to
Angwang’s initial proceeding
detain him prior to his trial. Th e appeal
by using the
was denied on Friday, Dec. 11.
allegations against
Angwang is accused of acting as an
unregistered foreign agent, working with
two members of the Chinese consulate
in New York since 2018 to provide information
Angwang in their decision to detain
him.
Ultimately, the court found no fault in
its initial decision.
Angwang, who lives in Williston Park
in Long Island, came to the U.S. on a cultural
exchange visa and overstayed a second
visa, eventually becoming a naturalized
citizen aft er seeking asylum in the
U.S.
In his asylum claim, the offi cer alleged
that he had suff ered arrest and torture
at the hands of the Chinese government
when in realty, as the criminal complaint
alleges, he was working with the Chinese
consulate to report on ethnic Tibetans living
in the city.
Angwang faces up to 55 years behind
bars if convicted.
Photo via Twitter/@
nypd111pct
QNS/File
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
