NYC PULLS OFF LARGEST RANKED CHOICE VOTING ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY

NEW YORK, NY (06/23/2021) (readMedia)-- Nearly 1.1 million New Yorkers made history voting in the largest and most diverse ranked choice voting election in the United States. Voters experienced the many benefits of ranked choice voting - they were enthusiastic about the voting experience, more engaged and informed about the candidates they voted for, and glad to leave a greater impact on the final results. And, thanks to ranked choice voting, they avoided a costly runoff election.

For the first time in 20 years since Michael Bloomberg won the general election in 2001 with 50.3%, the leading candidate for Mayor will have been elected with a clear mandate.

"New Yorkers successfully voted in the largest ranked choice voting election in U.S. history!" said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY. "The election went smoothly, and voters can be certain that our next Mayor, Borough Presidents, Comptroller, and City Council members are the candidates preferred by the most voters. Ranked choice voting affords voters more choice and more voice and puts power back in the hands of the people, delivering consensus majority winners every time. That's the robust democracy we need right now."

Rank the Vote NYC distributed over 1 million pieces of informational literature and partnered with over 750 organizations to conduct 500 + trainings for campaigns and voters. Canvassers knocked directly on 55,000 doors in the week before Election Day. Throughout Early Voting and on Election Day, over 100 Election Protection volunteers were stationed at poll sites across the city answering questions about ranked choice voting as well.

Rank the Vote NYC also conducted in-person exit polling which will be made available on June 28th.

Previous polling indicates:

• 89% of voters heard a lot or a little about RCV
• 74% ranked more than one choice for Mayor. Black voters - more than any other demographic - used all five rankings.
• 80% of voters were comfortable using ranked choice voting

And in exit polling from the special elections earlier this year:

• 95% of voters stated they found the RCV ballot simple to fill out
• 75% of voters stated they were familiar with RCV prior to arriving at the polls
• 70% of voters took advantage of RCV and ranked more than one candidate
• There was no statistically meaningful difference between ethnic groups' understanding of RCV :
  • 94% of Black voters found their ballot simple to complete.
  • 97% of Asian voters found their ballot simple to complete.
  • 97% of Hispanic voters found their ballot simple to complete.
  • 97% of white voters found their ballot simple to complete.
• Out of the four special elections, voters in CD 15 - a majority Black and Latino district - ranked the most candidates.

There were 51 ranked choice voting elections yesterday, with 352 candidates running. Two-thirds of the citywide races did not have a majority winner, and will be determined after ranked choice voting rounds.

• 10 council races appeared to reach or exceeded the 50% + 1 threshold
• None of the borough president races had a clear winner on election night
• 8.4% of the electorate voted absentee - as of June 22, 90,763 absentee ballots have been received by the BOE
• 191,197 New Yorkers voted early

Across the five boroughs, New Yorkers were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about ranked choice voting.

They found it easy.

• "It was very easy. I spent about five minutes," Michael Dubick told the New York Post. "I did a lot of research, and therefore I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted to vote and it was straightforward."
• Bryan Pensirikul told The Post "I thought it was intuitive. Everything made sense to me."

They were more engaged and informed than in past elections.

• Alyson Mance told the New York Times, "2020 gave me a lot more time to research candidates." She brought organized ranked lists for each race to the polls.
• Winsome Henry told The Post "I voted for five people. I had no problem, because I studied them before."

They appreciated the larger say they have in the final election results.

• "It actually makes me feel like I'm contributing more to who is winning, because maybe my first choice candidate isn't as popular as maybe my second choice," Corrina Chan told The Post. "But then if the second choice wins, then I feel like I participated ... more in the process."
• Zachary Tallman gushed about Ranked Choice Voting to the Daily News, calling it "a breeze" and saying "It's a real luxury to be able to vote for multiple people.

And they found it exciting!

• Jeffrey Roth told the Daily News "I think it's great. It's a real positive thing."
• Aracelis Gutíerrez told The City that ranked choice voting drew her to the polls. ""That's the main reason I came out to vote today, to try out this new thing," she said. "It's exciting!"

Diversity and Representation in the Mayor's Race

Thanks to ranked choice voting, we're seeing increased diversity in the leading contenders for mayor and City Council. 29 women are leading their council races, meaning for the first time ever, the New York City council could be majority women.

And in the mayoral race, the top four first choice finishers included three candidates of color and two women.

Ranked choice voting radically alters who can be a leading contender by reducing pressure on candidates to drop out and avoid vote splitting. What we're seeing in New York is consistent with a new FairVote study that proves this phenomenon: candidates pay no penalty when they run against opponents of the same race or ethnicity. For example, instead of dividing Black community support, Adams and Wiley can run against each other as serious contenders.

When to Expect Results

Voters can expect to know the final winner in a few weeks -- thanks to pro-voter election laws. Currently, state law doesn't allow the Board of Elections (BOE) to begin counting ballots until June 29. Why wait a week? Well, in New York a voter can vote via absentee and then later change their mind and vote in person (only the in person vote counts) so the BOE must check to make sure a voter only voted once. Then, absentee voters have a week for their ballots to get to the BOE (ballots must be postmarked by yesterday). And now, thanks to a new, excellent law, a voter can correct or "cure" their absentee ballot over a small mistake, like forgetting his or her signature. The BOE contacts voters about the opportunity to fix their mistake, and corrected ballots are due back by July 9.

Reminder: we likely wouldn't know the official results until at least July 12 even if this were a winner-take-all election like we've had in the past. That's because of two things:

• The increase in voters taking advantage of no fault absentee ballots
• The high chance of a run-off election due to the fact that it's unlikely that anyone will clear 40% on election night. If this were a winner take all election, we'd be waiting approximately 2-3 weeks -- or the same amount of time -- for a run-off election. Except then, we could expect low turn-out and a high price tag. No thanks! RCV is a one shot that saves voters time and money.

RESULTS TIMELINE

• June 22: unofficial election results based on first choices of in-person Election Day and early voting returns
• June 29: The RCV rounds will be conducted next week on only the in-person votes. The software is instantaneous but these results will still be INCOMPLETE, as they will only include early and in-person votes.
• July 6: the BOE will release an updated RCV count with the absentee ballots they've received and counted so far, and will continue to update these results weekly until all ballots are in and the count is certified.
• July 12: likely date of final results which will include final round-by-round tabulation as needed.