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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: 4, Informative) by Bethany.Saint on Thursday November 07 2019, @01:33PM (2 children)
The way I understand it, no. If all people who voted for D1 or D2 selected the other D person (and there was one more overall vote for D1+D2 than R) then R wouldn't win first because they didn't have the majority of votes. D2 would be removed from the results and the votes would go to the next top person voted for which would be D1 in this case. If R had one vote more than D1+D2 then R would win outright but would have won a popular election also.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @05:44PM (1 child)
This does not guarantee that voting for you true favorite is the best way to get the to come you want.
Put another way, it does not prevent tactical voting for something you don't prefer.
It's more difficult to get a better outcome via tactical voting, than first past the post.
Consider:
4 candidates, none of whom have over 50%.
Candidate A is (polling) in the lead.
Candidate B is in a close second.
Candidate C is a distant third.
Candidate D is forth and in a near tie with Candidate C.
Voters who favor C tend to favor A as a second choice (and vice versa).
Voters who favor D tend to favor B as a second choice (and vice versa).
If only D is eliminated, the "D" voters mostly shift to B who likely wins.
If only C is eliminated, the "C" voters mostly shift to A who likely wins.
If both C & D are both eliminated, the votes shift as described above and A likely wins
If people who favor "A then C" (the largest block) vote their "true favorite", they lose.
If people who favor "A then C" instead vote For "D then A", they get their "true favorite".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @05:52PM
Updated to better show "teams" without using the distracting "R" & "D" labels in the GP.
Consider this as though you are team "A" and again as though you are team "B".
4 candidates, none of whom have over 50%.
Candidate A1 is (polling) in the lead.
Candidate B1 is in a close second.
Candidate A2 is a distant third.
Candidate B2 is forth and in a near tie with Candidate A2.
Voters who favor A2 tend to favor A1 as a second choice (and vice versa).
Voters who favor B2 tend to favor B1 as a second choice (and vice versa).
If only B2 is eliminated, the "B2" voters mostly shift to B1 who likely wins.
If only A2 is eliminated, the "A2" voters mostly shift to A1 who likely wins.
If both A2 & B2 are both eliminated, the votes shift as described above and A1 likely wins
If people who favor "A1 then A2" (the largest block) vote their "true favorite", they lose.
If people who favor "A1 then A2" instead vote for "B2 then A1", they get their "true favorite".