VIDEO: Zephyr Teachout + Unruly Women Rally for Ranked Choice Voting

Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, Zenaida Mendez, Bertha Lewis, activists

NEW YORK, NY (10/06/2019) (readMedia)-- Link to Video of Rally HERE.

On Sunday, one year after Kavanaugh's controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court, a group of insurgent and unruly women rallied together in front of Trump Tower calling on New Yorkers to vote yes on Ranked Choice Voting in November.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) gives voters the option to rank their top five candidates in local New York City primary and special elections. If voters still want to vote for just one candidate, they can. A candidate who collects a majority of the vote, fifty percent plus one, wins. If there's no majority winner, then the last place candidate will be eliminated and the second choice votes for that candidate are redistributed. The process is repeated until there is a majority winner.

"We are in a position here in New York City to change the structures of power," said Zephyr Teachout, Activist and Fordham Law Professor. "Even in New York City women have too little power, less than one quarter of our City Council is women. One of the things we can do to change that, next month, is Vote Yes on 1."

Ranked Choice Voting offers distinct advantages for female candidates.

In 2016 Representation 2020 conducted a study found that in cities in the California Bay Area with Ranked Choice Voting women have won more than 40 percent of all contests. The study also found an increase in the number of women running for elective office. One theory is that in "winner-take-all" systems of elections, candidates lean on negative attacks to edge out competitors, while Ranked Choice Voting encourages more positive campaigning since candidates have to compete for second and third place as well. Since women experience above average rates of gender-based scrutiny in politics, reducing negative campaigning can encourage participation.

The need for more women in office is especially urgent in New York City where only 12 of the 51 members of the Council are women, or 24 %. In the same Representation 2020 study, The percentage of women winning races for open seats rose from 31 percent before RCV to 50 percent after RCV. In cities with RCV like Minneapolis and Oakland women have gained seats to have equal representation in their city councils. In Minneapolis 6 of 13 councilors are women, and Oakland 4 of 8.

Ranked Choice Voting is already in use in cities like Minneapolis and San Francisco, and has long been the standard in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. In 2020 Maine will make history as the first state to use RCV in their presidential primary after first implementing RCV in 2016.

"New Yorkers deserve elections that lift up our voices, and push candidates to campaign better. Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is the simple solution that puts power back in the hands of the people where it belongs. That's why Common Cause/NY is proud to stand with this group of strong women fighting for better elections," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.

"A year ago New Yorkers voted for major change in Albany, and now we have a chance to do the same in New York City with Ranked Choice Voting. Ranked Choice Voting puts power back in the hands of the people, by giving voters more options and elevating new, diverse candidates so that every community has a voice," said State Senators Alessandra Biaggi, Robert Jackson, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos, and Julia Salazar.

"Ranked-choice voting has proven to increase representation of women and people of color in government, because it lessens the entrenched political power of white-male representatives that have historically pushed insurgent candidates aside. Under this system, every candidate will be motivated to genuinely engage with communities beyond their base, and actually speak to and for a majority. At the end of the day, New York City deserves an electoral system that encourages voters to choose the person that best aligns with their values, not the lesser of two evils," said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx/Westchester).

"From the moment of my birth I have been labeled an Unruly Woman. Too black, too fat, too loud. But I am also an Unruly Voter and I will not stand for the old status quo that takes me and my sisters for granted. That is why I will and you should support Ranked Choice Voting because it is our choices that matter, even if they are Unruly," said Bertha Lewis, Activist, Radio Host on WBAI

"Democracy can only truly be effective when everyone's voice is heard. We need to implement ways that make running for office and voting more accessible for everyone, especially for people in communities that have historically been ignored and neglected by elected officials. Ranked Choice Voting is one of these ways, and I look forward to this and other mechanisms to improve our state's electoral system," said Assemblymember Catalina Cruz.

"New York is not a perfect democratic system" said Assemblymember Niou. "But ranked choice voting improves our system by providing more choice to voters and increasing representation. In elections where ranked choice voting is used, more women and people of color have been elected to their respective roles and that is invaluable because more perspectives mean better policy making. A system like ranked choice voting allows voters to finally experience the best of both worlds - with ranked ballot voting, there is no need to sacrifice representation or your beliefs to vote for a 'winning' candidate. It breaks down an issue that is normally viewed as 'this candidate vs this candidate' and instead represents it as the multifaceted issues that elections actually are," said Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou.

Background:

Other cities like San Francisco, Minneapolis and Santa Fe, and countries like Australia and Ireland have implemented ranked choice voting to great success. Maine will use ranked choice voting to select their presidential nominee.

Most candidates win crowded elections in New York City by campaigning to their base, and fail to get a majority. With ranked choice voting, candidates will be forced to campaign to the broader electorate in the hopes of being ranked second or third. Ranked choice voting helps create consensus candidates with majority support.

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, close to 70% of the New York City Council members, and all five borough presidents, the Comptroller and Mayor, will be term limited. The New York City Campaign Finance Board is already anticipating the opening of at least 500 campaign committees, which averages to 12 candidates per race.

In early April, Common Cause/NY 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, the 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.