The national spotlight
This week, New York City held primary elections for mayor, comptroller and a number of other citywide offices. This was a big test for ranked-choice voting, which was utilized for the first time in New York City.
In terms of how ranked-choice voting works, voters rank their top choices for candidates - first through fifth - rather than selecting just one candidate. If a candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, that candidate wins.
However, if there is no majority winner of the firstchoice vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as their first choice will have their second choice votes count. This process continues until there is a majority winner.
I have been a longtime advocate for ranked-choice voting, and believe it is a viable solution to the problems created by our current first-past-the-post system. My firm, Schoen-Cooperman Research, has also worked on referenda aimed at passing ranked-choice voting in cities and states across the country.
I support the method because, by design, it delivers a more representative outcome and gives voters more choice than a winner-take-all system. In addition, rankedchoice voting discourages negative campaigning and elects fewer extreme candidates.
To that end, one might ask: how successful is this process when put into practice, given what we currently know about the results of New York City's first rankedchoice voting election?
On one hand, the jury is still out, as we will not know the final results of many races for several more days, if not weeks. On the other hand, we can say with confidence that it was a positive first ranked-choice voting initiative out of the box.
In the highly anticipated Democratic primary race for mayor, as of today, Eric Adams leads the firstround count in the Democratic primary for mayor with 31.7 percent, followed by Maya Wiley in second with 22.3 percent, Kathryn Garcia in third with 19.5 percent and Andrew Yang in fourth with 11.7 percent. All other candidates are in the single digits.
Though we don't know the ultimate winner, Adams' strong performance in the first round is indicative of a strong performance overall. Further, based on ranked-choice voting initiatives in other states and cities, the first-place first-choice finisher has a strong chance of winning.
If Adams does win, we will be able to say that ranked-choice voting played a role in helping one of the more centrist candidates get elected - rather than an extreme progressive candidate.
And encouragingly, based on what we know now, ranked-choice voting seems to have prevailed against one of main concerns of the opponents. Opponents worried that the process was too novel and that there was not enough time to educate
New Yorkers, especially in Black and Brown communities. Opponents feared that this would lead to unrepresentative outcomes, whereby mostly white candidates prevail who are elected by mostly white voters.
While we cannot say with certainty how the turnout numbers will shake out, we can say that two Black candidates for citywide office - Adams for mayor and Jumaane Williams for public advocate - are likely to prevail in the primary process.