Explaining New York City’s ranked-choice voting system and when to expect results

CNN
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Voters in New York City will once again be asked to rank up to five candidates in the Democratic primary for mayor, four years after the process was slow and marred by a major tabulation error.

City officials are confident that the ranked-choice voting process will be faster and smoother this time, due in part to a change in state law that should result in most votes being reported on Election Day, June 24.

This year’s Democratic primary features 11 candidates on the ballot, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and several progressive challengers with state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani leading the way.

If no candidate tops 50% of first-choice votes, support for the lowest vote-getters is then redistributed in rounds based on voters’ other rankings until only two candidates remain.

Advocates say the “instant runoff” system allows voters to have more of a say over who wins beyond choosing just one person. Critics argue the system is overly confusing and could disadvantage less engaged voters.

Here’s what to expect and more detail about how the system works.

The ballot is a grid, with candidate names on the left and columns for each numbered choice. (View the ballot here.)

Each voter ranks up to five choices. Then the votes are counted. If more than half of voters rank a candidate as their first choice, that person wins.

If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, ballots are tabulated round by round.

In each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, with those votes reallocated to whoever their voters listed as their next choice. That process continues until only two candidates are left. The candidate with the most votes wins.

On Election Night, the New York City Board of Elections will report first-choice results for what is likely to be the majority of ballots cast. The results will include Election Day ballots, early-voting ballots and mail ballots that were received by Friday, June 20.

One week later, on July 1, officials will take those votes, plus any additional ballots they’ve counted since Election Day, and release a first look at the ranked-choice results. These results will show who is ahead after all the rounds of tabulation, but because they won’t include all the ballots cast in the race, they won’t be the final results.

After that, the board will release an updated count plus ranked-choice tabulation every Tuesday until the results are complete. Each update could include properly postmarked mail ballots that arrive close to or after Election Day (ballots can be received until July 1) and provisional ballots that are approved by officials after the election. The board plans to certify the results on July 15.

This means that with each update, it’s possible the order of candidates eliminated could change.

The CNN Decision Desk will project a winner either on Election Night, if it’s certain that one candidate will win more than 50% of the first-choice votes, or after a ranked choice tabulation.

In a ranked-choice tabulation, there will always be fewer ballots at the end of the count then there are at the beginning.

As the count continues, ballots are “exhausted” when every candidate the voter ranked is eliminated.

There are two major mistakes that voters can make.

If a voter ranks multiple candidates in the same position, their vote in that position, and any further rankings in the race, are invalidated. Take the example of someone marking a single candidate as their first choice but then two candidates as their second choice. The first choice would count, but if that candidate was eliminated, the voter’s second choice wouldn’t be counted, and their ballot would be removed from the rest of the count.

Ranking the same candidate in every position won’t invalidate a ballot, but it has the same impact as just selecting a first choice and leaving the rest of the rankings blank. The voter’s first choice is counted, but if that candidate is eliminated, their ballot is removed from the count.

Yes. New York City’s first major experience with ranked-choice voting in the 2021 mayoral primary was anything but smooth.

Due in part to a quirk in state law, the city didn’t report the results of any mail ballots until two weeks after the election.

That state law has changed, so most of the mail results will be available on Election Night and then as part of the first tabulation a week after the election.

The 2021 process was also marred by an error from the city board of elections which resulted in 135,000 test ballots being accidentally included in the ranked-choice tabulation. While the error was corrected and new results were released the next day, the incident resurfaced longstanding criticisms of the board.

Vincent Ignizio, the deputy executive director of the city’s board of elections, says he’s confident that situation won’t be repeated.

“We have implemented reforms that will prevent that this time around,” Ignizio said. “We fully expect to run a fair and accurate election.”

While ranked-choice voting is undoubtedly more complicated for voters who are used to just selecting one candidate per race, proponents say the system can both be more efficient and can lead to winning candidates who are more representative of the whole electorate.

In a race with several strong contenders, the top candidate can often win with a relatively small percentage of the vote. In New Jersey’s June 10 Democratic primary for governor, for example, Rep. Mikie Sherrill beat five competitors with about one-third of the vote.

Ranked-choice voting eliminates the need to spend time and money on a separate runoff because it allows voters to express their top preference while also recording other candidates they’d like to support if their favorite is no longer an option.

Some advocates also argue that ranked-choice voting can also lead to more positive campaigns. If Candidate A wants to win, the argument goes, that person needs the supporters of Candidate B to also rank them highly, and negative campaigning could turn off Candidate B’s supporters.

Opponents of ranked-choice voting argue that system is overly complicated and can lead to more rejected ballots and delayed and less transparent results.

In a ranked-choice voting election, it’s always better for voters to rank as many candidates as the rules allow to reduce the chance that their ballot is “exhausted.” Critics argue this gives an advantage to voters who have more time and resources to learn about candidates and develop a long list of preferences.

Amid the criticism, 17 states have banned the process in recent years, according to the conservative Stop Ranked-Choice Voting Coalition.