Ranked Choice Voting + the Race For Brooklyn Borough President

NEW YORK, NY (12/11/2020) (readMedia)-- On Wednesday night, the Brooklyn Library, Rank the Vote NYC, Common Cause/NY, Brooklyn Young Democrats and the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College hosted a forum on ranked choice voting (RCV) and the race for Brooklyn Borough President. The event was moderated by Lurie Daniel Favors, Interim Executive Director at the Center for Law and Social Justice. Seven candidates participated, including Councilmembers Anontio Reynoso and Robert Cornegy, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, Kim Council, Pearlene Fields, Khari Edwards, and Robert Ramos Jr.

WATCH the forum here.

The candidates were asked specifically how RCV impacts their campaigns. They answered:

"Ranked choice voting allows us to be focusing on ourselves, and not mudsling that is more common in Brooklyn. I think it's good for all of us," said Councilman Antionio Reynoso.

"Ranked choice voting gives voters the opportunity to actually focus on people's mission and vision for the borough. This is great for voters -- I don't know how great it is for me or other candidates -- but it's certainly great for the voters to look at accomplishments that people running for office have. I like the fact that voters get a chance to look at voters outside and intermingling of ideas and thoughts. You can really stay focused on candidates through this ranked choice process," said Councilman Robert Cornegy.

On Tuesday, six City Council Members filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court trying to 1) delay ranked choice voting by 2) suing on the grounds that there's been insufficient education to prepare voters for a city-wide ranked choice voting election in June, 2021.

Every candidate except Cornegy, who is a plaintiff, opposed it.

"I don't know why it [the lawsuit] is happening. If there were concerns they should have brought it up when it was voted into place. So now that's happening -- and yes we do need to make sure that the education happens for everyone -- it's here. We want to do it, the people voted for it," said Pearlene Fields.

"Filing lawsuits, and all that stuff, spend the time educating the people. Because when you want to get elected, they get educated about you. They learn who you are. So if you want them to know something, they're gonna know it. We have to go forward and not be afraid of change. That's what the voters want," said Robert Ramos, Jr.

"The biggest disenfranchisement that this city has with the current election system is run off elections. Run offs -- which see a significant decrease in the amount of Black and Brown voters that come out to vote in a second round. It decreases significantly. So much so that when Tish James was running for Public Advocate, she was in a runoff election where she won more votes in the initial run but because of the drop in the amount of Black and Brown voters was so low that everyone was panicking. Giving her money, a lot of resources to make sure she doesn't lose a race simply because of the disenfranchisement of the current system uses to make sure Black and Brown voters aren't heard the second time around," said Council Member Anontio Reynoso.

Lurie Daniel Favors asked other questions including:

• what do you think needs to be done to better prepare electorally underserved communities for ranked choice voting?
• what are the top five issues facing Brooklyn?
• how is ranked choice voting advantageous to your campaign?

RCV allows voters the opportunity to either rank 5 candidates in order of preference or vote for just one like they always have. If no one wins with a majority (more than 50%), the candidate that came in last is eliminated and voters' second choice votes get counted and so on until there's a majority winner. RCV will apply to primaries and a special elections for all local offices including City Council, Borough President, Comptroller, Public Advocate and Mayor. Voters overwhelmingly passed RCV in the fall of 2019, with 74% of the vote.

Background

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.

The Democracy Fund surveyed voters from ten cities, three where Ranked Choice Voting is in use and seven where it is not. The two year study found that voters in places with Ranked Choice Voting were happier with campaign conduct and experienced less negative campaigning than voters in places that do not use Ranked Choice Voting. A second comparative survey of voters in California in cities that do and do not use Ranked Choice Voting found that a majority supported adopting Ranked Choice Voting to improve election conduct. Other surveys conducted in California found major gains for people of color, increasing representation in majority-minority districts by 17 percent, multi-ethnic districts by 24 percent, and white majority districts by 9 percent. Ranked Choice Voting prevents the "spoiler effect," and encourages coalition building.

The 2019 campaign to bring Ranked Choice Voting to NYC was endorsed by: former Mayor David Dinkins (RIP), Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Comptroller Scott Stringer, State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, State Senator Brad Hoylman, State Senator Robert Jackson, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, State Senator Liz Krueger, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, State Senator Jessica Ramos, State Senator Gustavo Rivera, State Senator Julia Salazar, State Senator James Sanders, Jr., State Senator Luis Sepúlveda, Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, Assembly Member Ron Kim, Assembly Member Walter Mosley, Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, Assembly Member David Weprin, Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer, Council Member Costa Constantinides, Council Member Robert Cornegy, Jr., Council Member Rafael Espinal, Council Member Ben Kallos, Council Member Brad Lander, Council Member Stephen Levin, Council Member Mark Levine, Council Member Carlos Menchaca, Council Member Keith Powers, Council Member Antonio Reynoso, Council Member Carlina Rivera, Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, Council Member Helen Rosenthal, Council Member Paul Vallone, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Zephyr Teachout, Cynthia Nixon, Bishop Orlando Findlayter, and Reverend Dr. Ray Blanchette.