Voters in the city’s primary election on June 24 will use rank choice voting system. First used in the 2021 mayoral election, ranked voting was introduced in the polls after 2019.
Sade Clarke, who is registered to vote, said she feels the RCV system is complicated and that she didn’t know the whole process. “Voting for one elected official is better, it’s more simple,” she said.
RCV allows voters to rank five candidates of their choice, from first to fifth. If a candidate has more than 50% of the first votes in their race, then they win.
But if no candidate gets 50% of their first votes in the race, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and then the previous votes are rolled over to their next choice until one candidate with the most votes wins.
A voter can still put one candidate on their ballot by just marking a candidate on their first choice, and leaving the rest blank.
In 2021, Mayor Eric Adams won out of 12 other candidates in the Democratic primary. Using the ranked system, he went into the final round with former NYC Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.
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RCV is more useful to diversify the NYC elections, including more women and people of color in the election. The system gives more chances to candidates, allowing voters to choose more people they want to see in the office.
A downside to this new voting system is that this means that voters have to be more knowledgeable about their candidates to rank them.
There have been previous barriers to voting, so prior to getting to the polls, voters should ensure that they have their NYS ID or driver’s license, or know the last four digits of their social security number.
