• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. ranked-choice voting>

Debut of ranked elections in NYC faces resistance from nonwhite council members

Sara Swann
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
November 23, 2020
New York City
Darwin Fan/Getty Images

The biggest moment yet for ranked-choice voting, next year's election for mayor of New York, is facing big pushback from politicians in the city who argue the system would disenfranchise nonwhite voters.

Fifteen members of the City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus have launched a bid to delay the use of ranked elections. The nation's biggest city voted a year ago to become the largest jurisdiction in the country to embrace the system, which has emerged as a favorite innovation in the world of democracy reform because of its capacity to promote consensus candidates and diffuse polarizing politics.


But the council members, in a letter Friday to Council Speaker Corey Johnson, said the switch should be put off for two years. There is not enough time, they said, for the oft-criticized Board of Elections to educate an electorate of 5 million that is preoccupied by the coronavirus pandemic — and the absence of sufficient outreach will be felt most acutely by minority voters.

So-called RCV is to be used for primary and special elections for mayor, city council and other municipal offices, allowing voters to rank as many as five candidates in order of preference. The city is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the party's mayoral primary in June will be tantamount to election.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Use of the system — which ends up producing a winner who can claim to have the support of most voters — would have an enormous impact on a mayoral contest in which nearly a dozen Democrats are running to succeed Bill de Blasio, who has reached his two-term limit. Without RCV, one of them could win with only a small fraction of the primary vote.

The Board of Elections plans to begin a public education campaign and poll worker training on ranked-choice voting at the end of December. Two RCV advocacy groups have already begun training campaigns and voters on the new election system.

The first ranked election is supposed to be a Feb. 2 special election to fill a council seat. But the caucus members say six weeks is not enough time.

The election board's "history of failure was underscored this year by a series of embarrassing incidents that many New Yorkers of color rightly perceive as akin to voter suppression: prolonged delivery of absentee ballots, mailing of erroneous absentee ballot envelopes, several hours long waits at poll sites," they said. "Rather than forge ahead with BOE's slipshod implementation process, we have an obligation to pause this transformation."

The switch could be postponed through municipal legislation. Supporters of RCV say doing so would subvert the will of the city, where 74 percent voted for the change only a year ago.

Under ranked-choice voting, if no candidate wins outright by receiving a majority of first-choice votes, an instant run-off system kicks in. The candidate picked No. 1 on the fewest ballots is eliminated, those ballots are reassigned to the second choices, and the process repeats until one candidate is shown to have the support of a majority of voters.

Proponents say the system produces candidates who are more reflective of an electorate's voice, whereas a plurality system favors candidates with a narrow but passionate base. Supporters also say RCV bolsters turnout and the chances of nonwhite candidates.

One of the most prominent Black candidates for mayor, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, favored RCV a year ago but has now joined those calling for a delay.

From Your Site Articles
  • Ranked-choice voting backers eye momentum from NYC victory ... ›
  • As ranked-choice voting gains acceptance, critics push back - The ... ›
  • Dark money aided RCV in NYC, so a new law may be coming - The ... ›
  • NYC allowed to move ahead with ranked-choice election - The Fulcrum ›
  • NYC voters found ranked voting easy to use, polls show - The Fulcrum ›
  • New Yorkers use ranked-choice voting in mayoral primary - The Fulcrum ›
  • New York gets positive reviews for ranked-choice election - The Fulcrum ›
  • Some NYC voters' choices revealed by officials' latest error - The Fulcrum ›
  • Open primaries needed in NYC and across the country - The Fulcrum ›
  • Podcast: Ranked choice voting in NYC - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • How ranked-choice voting will work in New York City | City ›
  • Why Ranked-Choice Voting Is Having a Moment - The New York ... ›
  • Minority pols seek to delay NYC Ranked Choice Voting law ›
ranked-choice voting

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Why does a man wearing earrings drive Christians crazy?

Paul Swearengin

DeSantis' sitcom world

Lawrence Goldstone

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Steve Corbin

A dangerous loss of trust

William Natbony

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane
latest News

Your Take: The debt ceiling

Lennon Wesley III
9h

My center-right principles led me to embrace Ranked Choice Voting. Here's why.

Nate Plautz
9h

A win for the center

Lawrence Goldstone
07 June

Building a resilient democracy: Unmasking the true threats

Kristina Becvar
07 June

Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics looks for help

Howard Gorrell
07 June

Faith-based communities have a role to play in strengthening democracy

Sofi Hersher Andorsky
07 June
Videos

Video: The Buffalo shooting, how far have we come on race?

Our Staff

Video: Daughters and Sons

David L. Nevins

Video: Why music? Why now?

David L. Nevins

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
30 May

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
01 June

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May
Recommended
Your Take: The debt ceiling

Your Take: The debt ceiling

Congress
My center-right principles led me to embrace Ranked Choice Voting. Here's why.

My center-right principles led me to embrace Ranked Choice Voting. Here's why.

Big Picture
A win for the center

A win for the center

Congress
Building a resilient democracy: Unmasking the true threats

Building a resilient democracy: Unmasking the true threats

Threats to democracy
Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics looks for help

Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics looks for help

Pop Culture
Faith-based communities have a role to play in strengthening democracy

Faith-based communities have a role to play in strengthening democracy

Diversity Inclusion and Belonging