Diverse Steering Committee Supports Ranked Choice Voting

NEW YORK, NY (10/25/2019) (readMedia)-- Today, the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting NYC announced twelve steering committee members from all over New York City who all share one goal: to pass ranked choice voting for local elections.

Ranked Choice Voting has been endorsed by the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and Crain's New York.

The "Rank the Vote" coalition is a broad group of supporters from New York Communities for Change, the Partnership for New York City, Common Cause/NY, RWDSU, and more. See the full list of endorsements.

The Steering Committee includes (affiliation for identification purposes only):

  • Maya Wiley, University Professor, The New School
  • John Park, Executive Director of MinKwon Community Action center
  • Annetta Seecharran, Executive Director of Chhaya CDC
  • Jessica Walker, President, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce
  • Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President, NY Board of Rabbis
  • Ravi Gupta, Co-Founder/Partner, Arena
  • Stuart A. Shorenstein Partner, Cozen O'Connor
  • Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President
  • Betsy Gotbaum, Executive Director of Citizens Union
  • Yosef Rapaport, Media consultant
  • Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY
  • Zellnor Myrie, NYS Senator

Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank their top five candidates in order of preference. If voters still want to vote for just one candidate, they can. A candidate who collects a majority of the vote, fifty percent plus one, wins. If there's no majority winner, then the last place candidate will be eliminated and the second choice votes for that candidate are redistributed. The process is repeated until there is a majority winner.

In 2021, 70% of the City Council will be term limited, as well as all five borough presidents, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Mayor Bill de Blasio. The Campaign Finance Board predicts that at least 500 candidates will be competing for open seats, meaning up to 12 candidates vying for each City Council seat. A 2018 Common Cause/NY study found that 64 percent of multi-candidate primaries in New York City were won with less than 50 percent of the vote, and not a single race with 4 or more candidates produced a majority winner. Candidates elected through Ranked Choice Voting will always win with a majority of the vote.

Voters can learn more at rankthevotenyc.org.