With the new system, said one
supporter, "candidates will have to knock on the door of not just a
certain plurality, but on the diverse doors of NYC's mosaic majority."
Wednesday, November 06, 2019
Voting rights advocates
celebrated a "huge win for
democracy" Tuesday after New Yorkers approved a ballot measure that
would establish ranked-choice voting in the nation's most populous city.
With 90% reporting as of
Wednesday morning, New York City's Ballot Question 1 won approval from 73.5% of
voters.
NYC's ranked-choice voting
(RCV) measure was supported by a number of advocacy groups, politicians, and
even The New York Times editorial board, which called the
question the "most
exciting proposal" of the five measures considered by city voters
Tuesday.
In an RCV system—also known as
an instant
runoff voting system—voters rank candidates for each office in order
of preference on their ballots. If no candidate secures a majority of
first-choice votes, an elimination process is triggered and continues until one
candidate has majority support.
RCV has been growing in
popularity across the United States in recent years. It is used in
local and party election in some places around the country and statewide in
Maine.
In addition to establishing
RCV in primary and special elections for all local offices beginning in 2021,
the ballot measure will "increase
the time between a city office vacancy and the special election to fill it from
45 days (60 for mayor) to 80 days" and "change the timeline for city
council redistricting to complete it prior to city council nominating petition
signature collection."
Celebrating the ballot
measure's passage on Tuesday night, Common Cause NY executive director Susan
Lerner said that
RCV "is the simple solution that puts power back in the hands of the
people where it belongs. We look forward to working with our diverse partners
and elected officials to educate New Yorkers on how this important reform will
work in the local 2021 elections and beyond."
The RCV provision
garnered support from
New Yorkers and national advocates alike. Backers included Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—a widely popular freshman congresswoman who represents
parts of the Bronx and Queens—2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate
and city resident Andrew
Yang, Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.), state Attorney General Letitia James,
Democratic state Sen. Julia Salazar, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, and actor, activist, and city resident Cynthia Nixon.
The advocacy group FairVote,
which fights for fair elections and supports RCV, declared on Twitter:
"This is huge for the #RankedChoiceVoting movement!"
Supporters of an RCV system
argue that it pushes candidates to focus on engaging voters rather than
negative campaigning. FairVote president Rob Richie told Politico,
"You've got to be, I think, a better candidate."
"You as a candidate have
a lot more reasons to have conversations and engagements with people," he
said. "The candidates that run traditional campaigns that involve using
money and not using people have not done as well."
Rod Townsend, president of the
Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC, said in
statement ahead of the vote Tuesday that "it's been too easy for
candidates to ignore marginalized communities, including LGBTQ voters, because
they didn't think they needed every vote to win. Ranked-choice voting ends that
mindset because with RCV, every vote matters."
"With ranked-choice
voting, marginalized communities will be engaged by every candidate,"
Townsend added. "Candidates will have to knock on the door of not just a
certain plurality, but on the diverse doors of NYC's mosaic majority."
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