Early voting for the highly anticipated mayoral primary in New York City kicked off this weekend, and most voters will see a redesigned ballot for the first time. Many found a fun way to practice voting in recent weeks.
Voters across the nation's most populous city will be able to rank their top choices for mayor, as well as other municipal offices. The outcome of this election and voters' attitudes toward ranked-choice voting could influence whether the alternative voting method is adopted elsewhere in the United States.
New York City voters will rank in order of preference up to five candidates for mayor, comptroller, borough president, city council and public advocate. In the case that no candidate receives majority support, the election goes into an instant runoff in which the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and that person's support is redistributed to voters' second choices. This continues until one candidate crosses the 50 percent threshold.
To educate voters about the new process, local officials, the media and reform advocates launched fun information campaigns, often involving popular foods or fictional characters.
Ahead of the primary that will help determine his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio asked New Yorkers to practice using the new voting method by ranking their favorite pizza toppings. (Spoiler alert: Pepperoni was the definitive winner.)
The Gothamist, a local media outlet, held its own ranked election asking readers to choose their favorite fictional mayors of New York City. The contenders came from TV shows and movies, such as "City Hall," "The Taking of Pelham 123," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Ghostbusters," "Futurama," "Aftershock: Earthquake in New York" and "The Dark Knight." Ultimately, Mayor Lenny from "Ghostbusters" received the most votes overall. The Gothamist also had readers vote on their favorite books about New York. "The Catcher in the Rye" won that contest.
Reform organizations like the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center and FairVote have also used ice cream and other foods to explain how ranked elections work.
Some New Yorkers used RCV, as the system is known, earlier this year for special elections to fill City Council seats. But the citywide primary is by far the biggest test for ranked-elections, which have been used statewide in Maine and select cities around the country.
On Monday, the third day of early voting, the new system appeared to be running smoothly and wait times were under 20 minutes across the city. Just under 50,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots over the weekend during the first two early voting days. This turnout is unsurprisingly much lower than the first day of early voting for the presidential election last fall, which saw almost 94,000 ballots cast.
It remains to be seen who out of the 13 Democratic candidates will come out on top. Some of the contenders include Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, former Wall Street executive Raymond McGuire and Maya Wiley, a former counsel to de Blasio.
The two Republicans vying for mayor are Curtis Sliwa, a radio talk show host and founder of the nonprofit Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, an entrepreneur and activist.
Early in-person voting ends June 20, and primary day is June 22. Results will likely be finalized in early July after all the mail and provisional ballots are counted.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."