New York City’s 2023 ranked choice voting primaries
It was, by all accounts, a quiet, no-drama day at the polls in New York City as voters selected their City Council candidates. Voting ran smoothly, with ranked choice voting (RCV) clearly becoming part of the fabric of NYC’s elections in just its second use.
Most City Council primaries were uncontested, or saw a candidate win with a clear majority of voters’ first choices. These primary winners will compete in the general election in November, though many will not face strong competition.
Some contests highlighted in media coverage include the Democratic primary for Council District 9 in Harlem, where Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated Central Park Five, declared victory. In Lower Manhattan’s Council District 1, Chris Marte, the Democratic incumbent, handily beat three challengers.
In a joyous moment showing how RCV can foster better, more positive campaigning, Salaam and his opponent Al Taylor joked about who voters should rank Number 1 as they stood outside the polls in Harlem. Salaam and Taylor had previously cross-endorsed each other, encouraging voters to rank them first and second because of their shared policy platforms.
As of Wednesday afternoon, at least two races will head to ranked choice voting tabulation, as no candidate received a majority of voters’ first choices. In the Republican primary for Council District 13 in the East Bronx, Kristy Marmorato and George Havranek received 47.9% and 43.8% of votes, respectively.
In the Democratic primary for Northeast Queens’s Council District 19, Democratic candidates Tony Avella and Christopher S. Bae each received less than 40%, with Avella leading Bae by just 124 votes. In a single-choice election, this race could be won by a tiny margin – with the winning candidate lacking support from a majority of voters, and the contest possibly decided by vote-splitting among similar candidates. With RCV, candidates need deep and broad support to win.
New Yorkers can expect unofficial ranked choice voting results for these contests on July 5. This is based on New York’s timeline for absentee ballots to be returned, not on RCV. Nationally, the best practice is to report preliminary RCV results as soon as possible; most cities report preliminary RCV results within 24 hours. The actual tabulation takes just seconds and New York City could release unofficial, preliminary RCV results on election night.
RCV has been widely embraced across New York City. In 2021, 87% of New York City voters ranked multiple candidates for mayor, and 95% said their RCV ballot was easy to understand. RCV is simple, and New Yorkers enjoy it.
In an interview published in the New York Times Wednesday morning, Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, also noted that:
We heard some voters in our 2021 exit polling say that because they knew they had the ability to rank, they actually paid more attention to more candidates.
Updated preliminary results are available on the New York City Board of Elections website. Additionally, look for more coverage from FairVote as RCV results are released next week.
