Hizzoner: Let’s see if ‘ranked’ is racist

Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday the city would be wise to “reassess” its new ranked-choice voting system if evidence suggests there were racial and class disparities in how voters used it during the June primary.

“If it turns out it was utilized well across the board, in all sorts of communities, then I feel good about it,” de Blasio said during a virtual press conference about the system, under which voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference.

“[But] if it turns out, conversely, that we see a real skew, then I think it’s time to reassess, because what I don’t want to see [is] a system that enfranchises some people and not others,” de Blasio said.

The system, which does away with the need for a generally lower-turnout runoff election, was approved by wide margins by voters in a November 2019 ballot referendum.

Black and whites made full use of ranked voting at about equal rates, according to exit polling conducted on primary day, June 22. Forty-five percent of whites used all five spots, while 43 percent of blacks did. But the polling also found that 25 percent of black voters cast ballots for just one mayoral candidate, while only 10 percent of whites did.

“We need the research to really tell what happened here,” de Blasio said. “We don’t have that analysis yet.”

Of the 17 percent of New Yorkers who picked just one candidate, 65 percent told pollsters they were settled on one candidate in the race; just 28 percent said they were unfamiliar with ranked-choice voting.

Rose Pierre-Louis, a member of Rank the Vote NYC’s executive board, was confident data show no significant disparities among different races’ ability to use the system.

“The exit polling showed no difference in understanding among demographic groups because ranking is a simple process,” she said.