Analysis: Ranked choice voting gave New Yorkers more choice, more voice

Deb Otis, Bryan Huang, Avram Reisman | 

Last week, New Yorkers used ranked choice voting (RCV) to choose nominees for mayor, City Council, and other offices. Today, the New York City Board of Elections released preliminary ranked choice results, and SurveyUSA released an exit poll on voters’ attitudes toward RCV.

Key takeaways include:

  • 96% of voters found their RCV ballot simple to complete. 
  • New York voters continue to support RCV: 76% want to keep it or expand it to more elections.
  • 81% of voters say they understand RCV very or extremely well.
  • Turnout exceeded 1 million voters for the first time since 1989, and the city is also poised to keep its majority-women City Council – first elected under RCV. 
  • 95% of voters weighed in between the two finalists for mayor. That includes 159,619 voters who ranked another candidate first but ranked Zohran Mamdani and/or Andrew Cuomo on their ballot – RCV gave them more choice and more voice. 

Read on for analysis of the RCV results. The exit poll is available here. 

Sign up to get the latest news from the ranked choice voting movement.

Ranked choice voting gave New Yorkers more choice for mayor

In the closely watched Democratic primary for mayor, ranked choice voting gave voters more choice and delivered a majority winner without a costly runoff. 

Mamdani received 43.5% of voters’ first choices, compared to Cuomo’s 36.5%. In the preliminary RCV results, Mamdani’s margin grew from 7 to 12 points – he won a 56%-44% victory. (The city used “batch elimination” to eliminate candidates in the RCV count; read more here.) 

While 80% of voters ranked either Mamdani or Cuomo first, 152,883 voters – 74% of all those who ranked another candidate first – were able to weigh in between Mamdani and Cuomo because of RCV. 95% of all voters weighed in between Mamdani and Cuomo. (Note: This number grew to 159,619 voters in certified results.)

With RCV, New Yorkers were overwhelmingly able to rank their favorite candidate first, and still have their vote count for one of the finalists.

Mamdani won in part by adapting well to RCV – sharing what he liked about other candidates, raising funds for one of them, and cross-endorsing fellow candidates Brad Lander (who finished third) and Michael Blake. Mamdani ran an energetic campaign, engaging new voters and working to build the majority support required by RCV. 

Cuomo did not seem to run an RCV-attuned campaign; he did not return the endorsements he received from candidates Jessica Ramos and Whitney Tilson, and shared that he ranked no other candidates on his own mayoral ballot. 

It’s no surprise Mamdani benefited more from voters’ backup rankings than Cuomo. Mamdani garnered an additional 99,000 votes in the RCV count; Cuomo only received 53,493.

RCV helps deliver a majority-supported, majority-women City Council 

RCV ensured winners in all municipal primaries received majority support. 

One notable example was District 4 on the East Side of Manhattan, where six candidates ran for an open seat. Virginia Maloney, Vanessa Aronson, and Rachel Storch led among voters’ first choices, with 27%, 26%, and 23%, respectively. Maloney and Storch were supported by similar groups, while fourth-place candidate Benjamin Wetzler cross-endorsed Aronson. 

A plurality of Wetzler’s support went to Aronson when he was eliminated in the RCV count. But when Storch was eliminated, more of her voters went to Maloney – who won with 53% of the vote. This result shows how a crowded RCV race can address vote-splitting and deliver the most representative winner. 

Once again, New Yorkers are on track to elect a majority-women City Council. The city elected its first-ever majority-women council in 2021 – the first time it used RCV. 

High turnout and more votes count with RCV

For the first time since 1989, over one million New Yorkers cast votes in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor. While RCV is just one factor in turnout, research has suggested that municipal elections using RCV see 17% higher turnout and that RCV may have the strongest positive impact on youth turnout. A New York Times analysis tracked a major increase in new voters this cycle, and found that the largest groups of voters in the mayoral election were ages 25-29 and 30-34 – a departure from voting patterns in both New York City and other jurisdictions, with older voters tending to be most likely to turn out. 

It’s not just higher turnout. Each vote is more powerful with RCV. More voters directly affect the outcome between viable candidates. In the mayor’s race, the 152,883 voters whose voices were fully heard because of RCV represent 19% of all votes cast. 

Without RCV, these races would either be won with a plurality of the vote or go to a July runoff. In a plurality election, voters who support lower-performing candidates do not get a chance to weigh in between viable candidates. 

With delayed runoff elections, fewer votes end up counting; with RCV, more do. The last time New York held a runoff election, turnout fell 62% from the first round to the runoff. With RCV, far more voters have their voices heard.