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Ranked-choice voting adopted in New York City, along with other ballot measures
New York City will move to a system of ranked-choice voting, shaking up the way its elections are run after voters approved a ballot question to make the change.
The city will be by far the biggest place in the U.S. to put the new way of voting to the test, tripling the number of people around the country who use it.
A ballot question proposing the shift for New York primaries and special elections was approved Tuesday by a margin of nearly 3-1. It's now set to be in effect for New York's elections for mayor, City Council and other offices in 2021.
Under the system, voters will rank up to five candidates in order of preference, instead of casting a ballot for just one. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, the last place candidate is eliminated and their votes are parceled out to the voter's second choice, a computerized process that continues until one candidate has a majority and is declared the winner.
Ranked-choice voting is now in use or approved in 18 other cities around the country, including San Francisco, Minneapolis and Cambridge. The state of Maine also uses it. Backers say the system discourages negative campaigning, and forces candidates to reach out to more voters rather than relying on a narrow base. It's also designed to allow voters to pick their true favorite, without worrying about throwing away a vote on someone who can't win.
Previously: Maine Supreme Court Approves Ranked-Choice Voting for 2018 Elections
Maine Debuts Ranked-Choice Voting
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 07 2019, @08:17AM (3 children)
Except NYC didn't vote for a Condorcet method, they voted for instant-runoff voting [wikipedia.org]. The positive is that there is some evidence that IRV reduces negative campaigning/attack ads. But it doesn't do a good job of reducing polarization.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 07 2019, @08:59AM
Given that NYC is 7-1 Democratic, that's not really an issue.
Come visit. It's a wonderful place to enjoy yourself, and we're happy to take your money even if you're a LIV [wikipedia.org].
I recommend a Broadway show [tdf.org] and then take your friends/family to Carmine's [carminesnyc.com], Plataforma [plataformaonline.com] or both.
But don't talk to the furries or take photos with them. They will grab your teenage daughter's ass [nypost.com] and that's your job.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday November 07 2019, @08:47PM (1 child)
Now that they have the ballot, can't they feed it through the Condorcet method -- and first-past-the-post, for that matter -- and come up with those winners even if they're not the ones who will assume office? It would be interesting, if nothing else. You could also get the ranked losers that way if you wanted.
(Score: 2) by rondon on Friday November 08 2019, @03:09PM
Can't really compare to first-past-the-post because the two different methods change voting methodology quite a bit. For example, someone who ranks Green Party first and Dem second may vote straight Dem if they don't have ranked choice.