









Our fake election





The counting begins: Round 1


Round 1 Results
CandidateVote Share


The field narrows: Round 2




These are the results:

Round 2 Results
CandidateVote Share



Winnowing further: Round 3





Round 3 Results
CandidateVote Share



And then there were three: Round 4





Round 4 Results
CandidateVote Share


Round 5: Two candidates enter, one wins





And here are the final election results:

Final (Round 5) Results
CandidateVote Share


It’s just math







*Correction: The original version of this article misstated a key aspect of RCV. While a candidate only needs to clear 50 percent to win the race on the first round, once the ranking mechanism is triggered, the counting proceeds until there are only two candidates. In our example, even though Al-Hasan clears 50 percent in Round 4, there is still a Round 5. Thanks to commenter Evan Harper for pointing out the error.

9 thoughts on “How Will Ranked-Choice Voting Work in NYC? Let’s Pretend.

  1. Thank you for somewhat clearing this up. But why does it still smell like a scam to me? RCV will only take place in the party primaries, not in the general election??

  2. It is a scam and many older voters will only vote for one person. I am afraid about their vote. What happens if I vote for the same person six times? Is there a way to stop me from doing that?

    • If you voted for the same person more than once it wouldn’t count. That’s because the system doesn’t take into account your 2nd and 3rd choices until your 1st choice has been eliminated. It that same eliminated person was in your 2 and 3 slot it would just be thrown away.

  3. The mechanics of “Ranked Choicer” voting works similarly to “Proportional Representation”, which was used for years in NYC Council elections, and more recently in local School Board elections. In both cases the voter marks the candidates on their ballot choice #1, #2, #3, etc.
    The difference was that all the City Council candidates in a boro ran against each other for the Boro’s share of the seats in the Council. The mechanics of counting the votes is the same: after each round of vote counting, the next choice on the loser’s ballots are distributed among the remaining candidates. The election ended when the number of candidates was finally reduced to the number of available seats.
    “Ranked Choice” is different because all the candidates are competing for one seat. The winner is the one who finally gets a majority of the votes.
    In both systems the ballots look the same, and the voters mark them the same way.

  4. I don’t understand the primary. Is RCV going to be used in the primary? Let’s say for mayor – All the candidates are going t be in one pot no matter their party? So if one candidate ends up getting a majority of votes wins mayor and there will be no general election? It doesn’t make sense. If you do RCV per party at the primary that doesn’t make sense. Please explain the difference between the set up for the primary vs the set up for the general election. Thank you.

    • Ranked-choice voting won’t occur in the general election — it’s only for primaries and special elections.

      The primaries are in June. If more than one mayoral candidate comes forward in any party, there will be a separate primary for that party, and if there are more than two candidates in a party, there will be ranked-choice voting in that party’s primary. (If there were only two candidates in a primary, you wouldn’t need ranked-choice voting because one candidate would have to win a majority on the first round, barring a tie.)

      Right now, it is all but certain there will be a Democratic mayoral primary featuring ranked-choice voting. It is unclear whether the Republicans, Conservatives, Greens or others will hold a primary.

      But there is a general election no matter what. It will feature the winner of the Democratic primary and the nominees of the other parties, whether they are named via primary or by default.

      This is different from the two-round, nonpartisan election system used by some other states. That is where all the candidates are thrown into one pool and, unless someone clears 50 percent, the top two finishers move on to a decisive final round. NYC’s system will be different from that.

  5. Ranked-choice voting has been employed on college campuses for years.
    But the contests are never for positions which can affect one’s
    finances and/or safety.
    And explaining why the candidate with the most original votes did not win is like
    explaining how the Electoral College works. I.E. if you have to explain it,
    you realize that it’s less democratic and representational.

  6. Wow so the days of a candidate squeaking out a primary victory with 30 – 40% of the vote (ex: de Blasio, 2013; Ferrer, 2005) are gone. Interesting, because those were usually the candidates supported by the Latino and Black communities (vs. Quinn and Weiner/Miller) those years, respectively.

  7. This article is in error. As the ballot initiative said,

    > A candidate who receives a majority of first-choice votes would win. If there is no majority winner, the last place candidate would be eliminated and any voter who had that candidate as their top choice would have their vote transferred to their next choice. This process would repeat until only two candidates remain, and the candidate with the most votes then would be the winner.

    The process is not halted at 50 percent plus one. The elimination and reallocations continue until a final count is produced representing all those who expressed a preference between the two most popular candidates. So you can win by 60 or 70 percent even after many rounds of eliminations and runoffs.

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