New York City can move forward with its debut of ranked elections in seven weeks, because a state judge has turned back arguments the system would effectively disenfranchise minority voters.
The nation's biggest city has become the most populous and prominent place in the nation to embrace ranked-choice voting, an alternative election system hailed in the democracy reform world as a topflight way to combat polarization in governance.
Six members of the City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus and other community organizations sued this month to delay its implementation, arguing election officials do not have enough time to ready the switch and educate voters about the new system. But with three-quarters of voters having approved RCV a year ago, supporters labeled that an attempt to subvert the will of the people.
State Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead did not go that far Wednesday. Instead, she ruled a delay could disenfranchise military voters, whose ballots are scheduled to be mailed Friday for a Feb. 2 special election to fill a vacant council seat in Queens.
"This court is disinclined to take any action that may result in the disenfranchisement of even one voter or take any action that may result in even one voter's ballot being nullified," she wrote in her three-page ruling.
Under the new system, New Yorkers may rank up to five candidates in order of preference in primaries and special elections. If no candidate wins outright by securing a majority of top-choice votes, an instant runoff takes place. The person listed No. 1 on the fewest ballots is eliminated, and the second-choice votes on those ballots are counted instead. The process continues until one person emerges with a majority of support.
But as the debut draws near, opponents have raised concerns that election officials are far from ready and that people in minority communities will be especially harmed. City Council critics point to an array of Board of Elections mishaps this year, including ballot delivery delays, erroneous ballot envelope mailings and long lines at polling places.
The elections board plans to start its public education campaign and training of poll workers in two weeks. RCV advocacy groups are also helping to inform voters about the new system.
While it's likely the judge's ruling will be appealed, supporters of ranked-choice voting are still celebrating this win. They see the new system as boosting overall turnout and bolstering the chances of nonwhite candidates.
The main event for RCV next year will be the city's Democratic mayoral primary in June, which will be tantamount to picking a successor to the term-limited incumbent, Bill DeBlasio. More than a dozen people are expected to join the field, and the new system will assure none of them gets the nod with a small share of the vote. Still, at least two of the most prominent candidates, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Black business executive Ray McGuire, have become critics of RCV in recent weeks — arguing it has the potential to suppress the Black and Latino vote. Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who has signaled he plans to run for mayor, endorsed ranked-choice voting while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.