On November 5, 2019, residents of New York City voted overwhelmingly to establish Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) to be used for primary and special elections for Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough Presidents and City Council beginning in 2021.
With RCV, NYC voters will be able to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. If their first choice doesn't win, their vote goes to their second choice; if their second choice doesn't win, their vote goes to their third choice, etc. Votes are counted in this way until one candidate has at least 51% of the vote.
RCV was proposed in NYC to eliminate expensive run-off elections (when no candidate has won more than 40% of the vote), to more easily elect candidates to multi-seat offices, and to encourage increased voter turn-out.
The adoption of this electoral reform in the largest city in the country represents a major step forward in the movement to adopt RCV for all elections nationwide. In 2018, Maine voters became the first in the nation to use RCV in a statewide general election for U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Besides Maine, five states use RCV in federal or state elections to give military and overseas voters the opportunity to participate in two-round runoffs.
RCV is used in 12 US cities, including Oakland and San Francisco, CA, Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, Santa Fe, NM, and Cambridge, MA (since 1941). 1.5 billion people around the world live in countries that use RCV including Australia, Britain, India, and Ireland. The Academy Awards (the Oscars) uses RCV to select “Best Picture.”
When RCV has been used, voters have found that it tends to promote diversity, encourages more candidates to run for office without fear of vote-splitting, and tends to curb negative campaigning by rewarding candidates who reach beyond their bases to appeal to more voters. Major campaigns are underway to pass statewide RCV in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Alaska, and several other states, including New York. See more information about New York state movements at FairVote.org/New_York and RankedChoiceNY.org
Watch this 1 minute video to see how Ranked-Choice Voting works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRPMJmzBBw
