TODAY: PA Williams, City Council Members + Advocates Push for Ranked Choice Voting in NYC

RCV will streamline competitive elections and produce consensus candidates; CC/NY to release new analysis on RCV in NYC

NEW YORK, NY (04/10/2019) (readMedia)-- Wednesday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Councilman Brad Lander, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, and others will join together to urge the NYC Charter Commission to recommend Ranked Choice Voting: a consensus driven system that would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, instead of a winner take all model. Ranked Choice Voting would also allow more community based candidates to compete, particularly candidates of color.

Common Cause/NY will also release a new analysis on the impact of ranked choice voting on New York City.

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

Background

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. The groups' proposal would implement Ranked Choice Voting for all NYC primary and special elections, including races for city council and citywide offices.

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

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.

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.

WHO:

PA Jumaane Williams

CM Brad Lander

Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY

Rachel Bloom, Director of Public Policy and Programs of Citizens Union

Alex Camarda, Senior Policy Advisor of Reinvent Albany

**list in formation**

WHAT:

 PA Williams, NYC Council Members, Common Cause/NY and advocates push for Ranked Choice Voting.

WHEN: Wednesday April 10, 2019 at 11:00AM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
WHERE: Steps of City Hall
Manhattan, New York
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