The Wrong Way to Do Ranked Choice Voting
America's largest city offers a case study in what to avoid.
Learning opportunity.
Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Ranked choice voting continues to spread around the U.S. But not all systems are the same, and New York City is about to put on a tutorial on how not to do it. It’s a cautionary tale for other cities and states.
Ranked voting is intended to allow voters to choose their preferred candidates without worrying about whether they can win. In most cases, the process is straightforward: The ballot lists all candidates and is open to all voters, regardless of their party affiliations. If no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, the last-place finisher is eliminated and that candidate’s ballots are given to whoever voters ranked second, a process that continues until someone clears 50%.