First Ever Ranked Choice Voting Success!

NEW YORK, NY (03/18/2021) (readMedia)-- Today, the New York City Board of Elections (NYCBOE) finished the hand counting of Ranked Choice Voting ballots for the special election in District 31, declaring a majority support winner. The June primaries will use tabulation software once the New York State Board of Elections certifies it in April; the software will produce immediate results after all eligible ballots are counted.

The BOE began tabulating ranked choice ballots on Tuesday because NYS law requires all ballots must be received by the Board before the round by round tabulation can commence. This includes all eligible absentee and military ballots.

"The second Ranked Choice Voting election in New York City -- and the first to go into rounds -- went as planned: smoothly. Voters have elected a consensus candidate, who won with majority support. That's a huge improvement over our previous system. Ranked Choice Voting is easy to use too: 95% of Queens voters found the RCV ballot simple to understand, and 75% knew about RCV before heading to the polls. We will continue our education and outreach efforts, together with our outstanding community partners, to make sure all voters are fully empowered in June," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.

Last week, Common Cause/NY and Rank the Vote NYC released an exit polling memo from the two Queens special elections in Council Districts 24 and 31. The polls were conducted by Edison Research, with a sample size of 635 in-person and absentee voters from a broad spectrum of ages, races, and education levels that reflect the demographics of the two districts. The poll reveals voters found the ballot simple to use, knew about ranked choice voting, and ranked their ballot.

Highlights include:

• 95.2% of voters stated they found the Ranked Choice Voting ballot simple to fill out
  • 80.2% found the ballot very simple to complete
  • 1.3% found the ballot very difficult to complete

• Education efforts about Ranked Choice Voting done by Rank the Vote, candidates, the NYC Government and others are working
  • 74.7% of voters stated they were familiar with RCV prior to voting.
  • 13.2% of voters stated they were very unfamiliar with Ranked Choice Voting prior to voting.

• A majority of voters took advantage of the new voting system, ranking more than one candidate
  • 61% of voters utilized the rankings on their ballot
  • 39% of voters only voted for one candidate
  • 31% ranked 5 candidates
  • 15% ranked 2 candidates
  • 8% ranked 3 candidates & 6% ranked 4 candidates

• The majority of voters who did not rank did so because they only had one preferred candidate.
  • 78.7% of voters did not rank because they only had one preferred candidate.
  • 19.9% reported they did not rank because they didn't know enough about other candidates.
  • 3.4% did not rank because they didn't know they could rank.