VIDEO: Ron Kim, Common Cause/NY + Advocates Push for Ranked Choice Voting

W/ 2021 elections looming, RCV would streamline competitive elections and produce consensus candidates

NEW YORK, NY (04/11/2019) (readMedia)-- Today, Assemblymember Ron Kim, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, Amy Torres, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Chinese-American Planning Council, and MinKwon urged 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 the existing winner take all model.

View the press conference here.

Ranked Choice Voting would change the way candidates campaign, forcing them to reach beyond their base in order to build majority support. Eleven cities including San Francisco, Minneapolis and Santa Fe, have successfully implemented RCV and changed the demographics of local representation. Ed Lee, the former Mayor of San Francisco, was the first Asian-American to win his election as the second consensus choice as a result of RCV. 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.

"Ranked-choice voting is a commonsense 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 candidates of color win, creates consensus, and eliminates the winner-take-all mentality -- it's about time New Yorkers have a chance to rank."

"Ranked Choice Voting is a fair and progressive system for ensuring that the will and preferences of voters are fully taken into account. It will give candidates with the widest range of support, even when they are not always someone's first choice, an opportunity to prevail in races without a clear majority-winner, and allow more diverse voices a chance to be impactful and heard. I applaud Common Cause NY and its Executive Director, Susan Lerner, for leading the way on this initiative, and join her in urging the NYC Charter Commission to implement RCV," said Assemblymember Ron Kim.

Yesterday, Common Cause/NY also launched a website and released a new analysis that builds on a previous report -- The Case for Ranked Choice Voting in New York City -- which quantifies the prevalence of multi-candidate primaries in the last three election cycles in NYC. The study found:

  • Over the last three election cycles, there average number of candidates ranged from 4 to 5.
  • Over the last three election cycles, less than 15% of multi-candidate primaries with 4 or more candidates produced majority support winners.
  • In 2013, the last primary election cycle with a wave of open seats, no race with 4 or more candidates produced a majority support winner.

"At a time when we need more solidarity, joint issue-building, and intersectionality, ranked choice voting is a no-brainer. It will encourage our local representatives to engage with constituents and communities beyond their base, and truly speak to and for a majority. The NYC Charter Revision Commission must go the extra mile in their recommendations and give New Yorkers the choice and voice they deserve," said Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

"Immigrant and communities of color have long been disenfranchised from the political process, and its time we even the scales," said Jagpreet Singh, Lead Organizer at Chhaya CDC. "We need policies like Ranked Choice Voting to see real diversity in our representation and create a more equitable democratic process."

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.

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.

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