Vote Yes for Ranked Choice Voting

Tuesday, November 5th is Election Day in New York City. About 5.2 million New Yorkers will be eligible to vote in this election. But if recent history is any indication, few of them will show up to the polls.

Turnout has tumbled sharply since 2001, when 36% voted in the mayoral race. Just 24% of the electorate voted in the 2017 mayoral general election. The problem is even worse in other local elections: in the Democratic mayoral primary, only 14% of eligible voters voted; just 8% voted in February’s public advocate election.

As a result of low voter turnout, elected officials that represent the entire city are often voted into power by just a small fraction of the populace.

One of the proposals on Tuesday’s ballot — ranked choice voting — would help with this problem. By allowing voters to rank candidates by order of preference, this system would produce election winners who better represent their districts. Ranked choice voting also has a track record of increasing voter turnout, particularly when it replaces primary and runoff elections.

Tuesday will mark the city’s fourth Election Day this year and its 17th since 2016. Few New Yorkers voted in these elections, but Tuesday’s vote on ranked choice voting could help rectify this problem in future elections. Unfortunately, recent trends suggest this decision will be made by a tiny subset of the electorate.