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By Ambar Castillo | February 10, 2025
You may have election fatigue and want to tune out politics. But with New York City’s upcoming mayoral election, you have a good chance of making a difference in how the city is run.
Our local elections have historically low voter engagement: According to the New York City Board of Elections, only about 23% of registered voters turned out for the last general election.
New Yorkers used ranked-choice voting (RCV) in a mayoral primary for the first time in 2021. But some community members tell us they still don’t understand how it works. The explainer below will help anyone who’s confused about RCV or feels jaded about the United States’ two-party system. Civic advocates are hoping this year will have more voters engaged than before.
The deadline to make sure you can vote in the primary elections is on Friday, Feb. 14. That is the last day you can change the party you’re enrolled in for the primary. This is important if you want to participate but are registered as an independent, or with the Working Families or Conservative parties. You need to enroll as a Democratic or Republican party to vote in these major-party primaries. You can check your registration and change it here.
In 2019, most NYC voters approved ranked-choice voting (RCV) for local primary and special elections. This includes offices like the mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and City Council.
The RCV system is designed to give you more say in who gets elected. This goes beyond your top choice. You can rank up to five candidates.
So if you can’t decide between two or more candidates, you can still rank your favorites high. And if you hate a candidate, you can leave them out completely.
Mark one choice (1-5) per column, like below. You can mark only one pick if you want, or rank multiple candidates.
1= 1st choice – your favorite
2 = 2nd choice – your second favorite
3 = 3rd choice – your third favorite … and so on, to your fifth choice
Leave it blank (did not rank) = you don’t want this candidate in office at all
Let’s use some of this year’s Grammy winners as an example.
Based on the above, your ranked choice voting picks were:
1- Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
2 – Kendrick Lamar
3 – Residente
4 – Chappell Roan
5 – Did not rank
This allows a larger diversity of candidates to get a fair shake, experts say: because of RCV, women and people of color’s representation in elected politics has grown.
For example, in 2021, for the first time in history, a majority of women were elected to the City Council.
RCV also counters the single-winner system that favors incumbents and people who can afford expensive campaigns.
RCV might seem like a new system in the city, but NYC used a form of ranked-choice voting (though it looked different) in the 1930s and 1940s for City Council elections.
This was the later part of an era of progressive voting reforms, like women’s suffrage, direct election of senators, and open primaries. RCV was one of those reforms.
The system was adopted in 1936 to curb political corruption under the Tammany Hall political machine. It allowed voters to rank multiple candidates and helped increase representation for smaller parties, including minority candidates.
But it faced strong opposition, especially from the Democratic Party at the time. It was repealed in 1947 after being linked to Communist Party wins during the so-called Red Scare. NYC then returned to a winner-take-all system — until voters approved the modern RCV system in 2019.
If one candidate gets more than 50% of the first-place votes, then that candidate wins. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the first-place votes, then ranked-choice voting determines the winner.
The candidate who has the fewest first-choice votes of all is eliminated. For the voters who voted for them as their top pick, their second-choice votes are counted.
The next candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Their supporters’ votes shift to their next choice. This continues, with one person eliminated in each round.
The process stops when one candidate has more than 50% of the vote.
For more clarity or information on ranked-choice voting in NYC, here are some resources:
Read more of our politics stories here.
This content is run in collaboration with the Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter launched at the height of Covid-19 to surface and meet the needs, expand networks and create more connectivity among neighbors in New York City. We are written by the community, for the community. Welcome.
You can subscribe here. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
The post Ready for a new mayor? A reminder of how ranked-choice voting works appeared first on The Haitian Times.
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