CM Reynoso + Advocates Push for Ranked Choice Voting in NYC

NEW YORK, NY (04/04/2019) (readMedia)-- Thursday, Councilmember Antonio Reynoso and Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, will join together to urge the NYC Charter Commission recommend Ranked Choice Voting (RCV): a consensus driven system that would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, instead of a winner take all model. RCV would also allow more community based candidates to compete, particularly candidates of color. Councilman Reynoso is term limited in 2021, as is 70% of the New York City Council, and a multi-candidate election to replace him is likely.

The NYC Charter Commission will adopt a draft slate of proposals this month, that voters will ultimately approve or reject on the November ballot.

Background

Ranked choice voting allows voters to express their preferences for a variety of candidates by ranking their first five choices. If on election day when all the first-choices are counted there is one candidate who collects a majority of the vote, that candidate wins. If there's no majority, then the last-place candidate is eliminated and their votes re-allocated according to voter preferences. The process is repeated until there's a majority winner.

Other cities like San Francisco, Minneapolis and Santa Fe, have implemented ranked choice voting to revolutionize the way candidates campaign.

In the last three election cycles in New York City, sixty-three percent of multi-candidate primaries were won with less than 50% of the vote, 30% were won with less than 40%, and nearly 10% were won with less than 30%. In 2021, the incumbents will be term-limited in approximately 70% of the City Council, all five borough presidencies, as well as the offices of the controller and the mayor. That means over 200 candidates will be competing over open seats.

Ranked choice voting also helps change the composition of what our government looks like. According to a study done by Fair Vote, in the four Bay Area cities that use ranked choice voting, candidates of color have won 62% of those races, as compared to only 38% prior.