Ranked-Choice Voting In NYC: Here's What You Need To Know

New York City NY

04 June, 2021

3:14 PM

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NEW YORK CITY — Besides the crowded Democratic mayoral ballot, perhaps the most daunting thing facing voters this upcoming primary is ranked-choice voting. But ranked-choice voting isn't actually all that complicated. In fact, it could help voters get more of a say in races overflowing with candidates. Voters can rank up to five candidates in order of their preference — an action Mayor Bill de Blasio has repeatedly encouraged New Yorkers to do. "Choose the candidates in order of your preference, fill in all five, because you don't know if that last choice you make now may not have an influence on the election," he said this week. "We've seen a lot of close elections. This is definitely going to be a close election. So, if you don't rank all five places, you could throw your vote away. Your vote could literally be exhausted and not have an impact when it could have had an impact." So how exactly does ranked-choice voting work? Let's dive in. Pick up to five The city's Board of Elections doesn't necessarily have a reputation for competence, but it has produced a simple video that succinctly sums up the process. For those who don't have time to watch, the process is simple. Pick up to five candidates and rank them as first-, second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-choice. Now, voters don't have to rank five candidates — they can rank as many (up to five) or a few candidates as they want. But they can't rank the same candidate more than once. The Board of Elections will consider that one vote. And putting multiple candidates in the same rank — say, first choice — will invalidate a ballot. How is a winner counted? First, there's a straightforward way — the candidate with more than 50 percent of first-choice votes automatically wins. But such an outcome is unlikely in a crowded race, so that's where ranked-choice helps narrow down the field. Vote counting will progress in rounds. Candidates with the fewest votes get eliminated round-by-round. Here's how the Board of Elections puts it: "If no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated. If your first choice is eliminated, your next choice will be counted, and so on. The process of elimination continues until there is a winner." OK... so am I voting five times? No, one person is still one vote. What ranked-choice voting does is stretches a single vote. Say a person's first-choice candidate is eliminated, then their vote moves to their second-choice candidate. If the second-choice candidate falls short, then the person's third choice moves up, and so on. When there's just two candidates remaining, the one with the most votes wins. Are there any catches? As much as advocates argue ranked-choice voting gives voters more of a voice, it does carry some potential downsides. First and foremost, no one is entirely sure how long it will take to determine a winner in crowded contests. It could take until mid-July if there are multiple rounds counted by hand, THE CITY reported. There's also the slight chance the first-place candidate from the first round could lose, the New York Times reported. It gets complicated, but essentially a second-place candidate can pull ahead if enough eliminated candidate's voters pick them as their second choice. The Board of Elections' ranked-choice voting guide can be read here.