Ranked choice voting gets big test in NYC

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

EXPLAINER: Ranked choice voting gets big test in NYC

By DAVID B. CARUSO
June 21, 2021



NEW YORK (AP) — Ranked choice voting makes its debut in New York City’s mayoral primary Tuesday in one of the most high-profile tests yet for a system gaining use in pockets across the U.S.

The system is based on a simple premise: Democracy works better if people aren’t forced to make an all-or-nothing choice with their vote.

Rather than pick just one candidate, voters get to rank several in order of preference. Even if a voter’s top choice doesn’t have enough support to win, their rankings of other candidates still play a role in determining the victor.

-snip-

If one candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters — more than 50% — that person wins the race outright, just like in a traditional election.

If nobody hits that threshold, ranked choice analysis kicks in.

Vote tabulation is done in rounds. In each round, the candidate in last place is eliminated. Votes cast ranking that candidate first are then redistributed to those voters’ second choices.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/nyc-primary-2021-how-ranked-choice-voting-works-c9d8c6e6c5cd582a886e3489988e166b

[padah513]

1. Curious

What if there's a tie for last place in any round? Are both candidates eliminated?

[Eugene]

2. The implementer can set a tie-breaking rule

in the rare case of a tied weighted score.

The could use something like more 1st choice votes, then 2nd choice, downward. Consider the NFL playoffs where record within the division is a key tie-breaker. U.S. Senate seniority also uses a stratified scoring of time in various offices to tie-break time in the Senate.

Then there's that old standby, the coin toss.

[brooklynite]

3. "No one has more than 50% of the votes on election night" is misleading...

We will only have preliminary counts on Election Night. There's a week for mail-in ballots to arrive, but time to cure ballot errors.

[frazzled]

5. Well, no one will have more than 50% on election night

And they won't start the ranking tabulations until June 29. Unless someone is way ahead on election night, you'll have to wait to see who wins after X rounds of rank tabulations.

This article from today's Times makes it sound like voters are all over the place, from confused, to confident, to obdurate (only gonna vote for my one choice).

The system can breathe new life into a candidate’s prospects as the counting plays out — but only if voters fill the ballots properly, a worry among some candidates and voting experts. It is also all but certain to make declaring a victor a slow process that will go well beyond Tuesday night, since the city Board of Elections will not begin tabulating the ranked choices until June 29.

...

The interviews indicated that voters seemed to split roughly into three groups: highly motivated individuals who have studied the field and planned their choices in advance, those who have a chosen favorite but know little of the rest of the group, and those with little interest in filling any of the ovals beyond their first choice.

...

Jane Lemiszko, 65, a retired health care administrator voting in Prospect Heights, said after her top pick, Ms. Wiley, she was less certain.

And she was more stymied by other races on the ballot, including comptroller, public advocate, City Council and more.

“I just went with first and second, that’s all right, kind of ‘Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,’” she said. “Definitely not the people who I’m against, but putting in some kind of order the people who sounded OK.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/nyregion/nyc-voters-ranked-choice.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

[frazzled]

4. The person with the most first-round votes doesn't always win

It's happened before. Depends on how the earlier, eliminated ballots voted for 2nd place (if at all) among the higher vote-getters.
In a close race, with unreliable polling, it's maybe not anyone's game, but potentially a wild game between the top 3.

This is why Garcia and Yang teamed up. Since Yang is down, he's hoping his supporters vote 2nd for Garcia, even though she might have been behind Adams on initial 1st-choice, first-round voting.

[tcslee2020]

6. I think that is going to happen here

I think Adams is ahead in the polls, so he will probably get the most #1 votes. However; it appears that the strategy of the other candidates is that they want their voters to completely leave Adams off their ballots. If that actually happens, and the Garcia/Yang/Wiley voters completely leave Adams off their ballots I don't see how Adams can win. I don't think he has enough of a lead to survive that kind of situation.

I'm also curious to see what percent of voters do not even bother to rank candidates and only fill in the slot for their #1 choice.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to announce a winner, and if there is a lot of confusion around it. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people are not happy with the results.

[frazzled]

7. Agree. /nt