Reynoso, Espinal, Salazar + Common Cause/NY: Ranked Choice Voting Good for Community-Based Candidates

NEW YORK, NY (04/04/2019) (readMedia)-- Today, Councilmember Antonio Reynoso and Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, joined together to urge the NYC Charter Commission to 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.

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

"Ranked-choice voting is a common sense reform that will revolutionize the way New Yorkers vote," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY. "As we've seen in other cities, ranked-choice voting helps community-based candidates win, creates consensus, and eliminates the winner-take-all mentality -- it's time to let New York rank."

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.

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.

Councilman Reynoso and Espinal are term limited in 2021, as is 70% of the New York City Council, and a multi-candidate election to replace them is likely.

"New York City's current voter laws are antiquated and out of line with our reputation as a bastion of progressive and innovative policy," said Council Member Antonio Reynoso. "Our current system calls for a runoff election in citywide races where no candidate receives more than 40% of the vote. Runoffs are exorbitantly expensive, duplicative, and tend to work in favor of established candidates. Ranked choice voting (RCV) allows voters to express their preferences for a variety of candidates by ranking their top five choices. It is time for New York City to follow the lead of numerous other localities by implementing Ranked Choice Voting for more streamlined, competitive, representative and cost effective elections."

"Ranked choice voting would offer myriad benefits for our democracy and our city, but perhaps the most important change it would bring is increasing the representation of women and people of color in government. This is especially important as we try to include and elevate the voices of marginalized populations, who have long been left out of the conversation. New York's greatest strength is its diversity, and ranked choice voting would allow that diversity to be better reflected in our elected officials. Cities like San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Minneapolis have already adopted this system for municipal elections, and it has had a tremendous impact on representation. It's time New York do the same," said Council Member Rafael Espinal.

"Ranked Choice Voting is an important reform that enables voters to have a greater voice in our democracy and therefore our society. It's clear that New York State has a democracy problem, as we have some of the lowest turnout rates in the nation. We need a full package of democratic reforms such as public campaign finance, more forgiving registration deadlines, and ranked choice voting to restore voters' faith in our democracy and create true representation of the will of the people," said State Senator Julia Salazar.

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

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.

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