New Yorkers: Rank Your Vote!

Episode Transcript

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Hi Borrowed listeners … it’s Krissa.

Adwoa Adusei And Adwoa!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras And we’re here in your ears, in between seasons, to bring you a little civic PSA, a bonus episode from Borrowed.

Adwoa Adusei It’s the start of summer, which means block parties and beach trips … and also, big, big primary elections here in New York City.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras That’s right, starting on June 12, all the way through June 22, registered Democrats and registered Republicans will cast their votes for our next mayor, borough president, city council members, public advocate, comptroller … and a few city judges. The general election will be in November, but since New York City has a strong majority of registered Democrats, the primary election is seen by many as the deciding election for the city’s top positions. 

Adwoa Adusei And, there’s something new about voting this year — this will be New York City’s first election where voters will get to cast their votes for up to five candidates for each position. It’s called ranked choice voting, and it’s so exciting that we decided to bring you an off-season episode to talk through some useful information about the process.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So, today on Borrowed: ranked choice voting! 

[Music]

Virginia Have you spoken to many people today?

Joan Yes, surprisingly, yes.

Virginia Really?

Joan Absolutely.

Adwoa Adusei On a sunny Saturday morning in May, Alan and Joan stood outside BPL’s Central Library to get the word out about ranked choice voting.

Joan And there's been a lot of families, a lot of seniors that have been walking about, just enjoying the sun. So, yes, we've been engaging quite a few people.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Joan is the Civic Engagement Committee chair for the Brooklyn NAACP. Her job is to get as many people educated as possible about ranked choice voting.

Joan The reality is, it's here. So, the people have spoken. They voted for this new concept, to make it possible for us not to just have a plurality of votes, but to have a majority of the people speak and indicate which candidate they want. So, I am here because I want to make sure that all of the people know exactly what needs to happen when they get in the voter booth.

Alan It's a vast improvement over the old style of voting, the one that most people are more accustomed to.

Adwoa Adusei Alan is a volunteer with Rank the Vote NYC, and he was tabling that Saturday in May because he believes ranked choice voting is a better, more equitable way to run elections.

Alan You don't feel like you're wasting your vote if you you can vote your conscience, even if it's a, you know, a third party candidate, somebody who doesn't you wouldn't think would have a great shot. You can vote for them because that's who you want to vote for, and have a second choice, a third choice, etc. And your vote just goes further.

Adwoa Adusei So, we've been saying the term a lot, but what is ranked choice voting and what do we need to know before we head to the polls between June 12 and June 22? Well, we decided to bring in an expert to help us answer a few questions. Joining us now is Jan Combopiano. She’s Senior Policy Director and Executive Committee Member for Brooklyn Voters Alliance. Welcome to Borrowed, Jan!

Jan Combopiano Thank you for having me.

Adwoa Adusei So, what is ranked choice voting?

Jan Combopiano Ranked Choice Voting is a method of voting that has been around for more than a century. It might be new to us in New York City, but it's not new around the world. And what it means is instead of only having to vote for one candidate per race, you get up to five choices and they are ranked in order of preference from one to five. And the tabulation of the votes happen in rounds. So, whoever might win the most first place votes, unless they get 50 percent plus one, there will be additional rounds. And the people who came in last in that choice, their second, third, fourth and fifth place choices from those folks will get reallocated until it's down to two people. And one of those people is going to get 50 percent plus one.

Adwoa Adusei Wow, very knock-out, knock-down method. So then, can I vote for one candidate five times?

Jan Combopiano Well, technically you could, but it's only going to count once. So, what we would say is, please don't do that. [Laughs] If you want to influence who makes it to the end, then you really should use all five of your choices on different candidates. 

Adwoa Adusei But what if I only like two candidates? 

Jan Combopiano So, what we would say in this method of voting is you have an opportunity to have your voice be heard, right? In the past, we have sometimes kind of gamed it out as a voter and we're like, I love this person. They are never going to win. I can't vote for them. And so we picked someone else. With ranked choice voting, we get to vote in the ways that we want and that matter to us. So what we would say is your first choice should be the candidate you love. This is the person in an ideal world you want to see win. Your second and third choices should be the candidates you like. And four and five or the candidates you can live with, right? You never, never, never have to vote for a candidate you hate. And please don't do that.

Adwoa Adusei Thank you.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Scaling back a little to get a bigger picture on this, why is this happening this year?

Jan Combopiano Because we all voted on it in 2019 as part of the city charter referendums. And so we're using it for the first time in 2021 because that's the next municipal election that we have. And for this year's elections, it's not for the judges or the D.A. or the district leaders or anything like that, because technically, those are state positions and the state gets to determine the method of voting. And so far, New York state has not decided on ranked choice voting. There is only one state in the country that uses ranked choice voting for all their elections, and that Maine

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So how is this year going to change New York City politics? How do you predict RCV affects the political landscape here in the city?

Jan Combopiano Ranked choice voting means that candidates have to ask everyone for their vote. And our typical way elections work, candidates only need to get their people to come out and they can just ignore everyone else. But in ranked choice voting, it's not enough to just be on that ballot in first choice. You need to be on other people's ballots in second, third, fourth and fifth to keep your candidacy alive through all those rounds of tabulation. It also leads to a lot more diverse elected officials because people will go look at someone--maybe they didn't vote for them in their first choice, but they're willing to put them second or third. And in our traditional way of voting, it's either one or nothing, right? And so people who might not get a second look might get discouraged from running for office at all, whereas in ranked choice voting, even somebody who might not win can build support for their ideas and go on to do something else in a way that we just don't see in traditional methods of voting.

Adwoa Adusei Thank you. And lastly, what’s one thing you want to leave listeners with about city elections this year?

Jan Combopiano Local elections matter in such an outsized way. Are we going to break car culture in this city? Will we ever have affordable housing again in this city? Local elections is where it really counts, where your life is truly affected every single day. Everything that you look at, everything that you experience really has some connection to local elections. And, we would say it's really important to vote in every election. But if you're only going to vote in one every few years, vote in your local. That's where it counts. 

Krissa Corbett Cavouras That was Jan Combopiano, coming to us from Brooklyn Voters’ Alliance. Thank you so much, Jan!

Jan Combopiano Thank you for having me. 

Adwoa Adusei I don’t know about you Krissa, but I feel way more prepared to go to the polls than I thought.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Yeah, it was very helpful to hear Jan frame it as, who do you love and then also who do you like, and who could you put up with? Because it helps you think about this pretty crowded feel with thirteen people, as just ranking them based on how much you’re going to be able to live with what they want to do.

Adwoa Adusei Before we go, a few things we wanted to mention now that we’ve got your civic ears. You recall that in our last civic update, we talked about the 2020 Census. And, the numbers are in! 

Krissa Corbett Cavouras That’s right. According to the 2020 Census, New York state population grew by about four percent in the last ten years. But, because other states grew at a faster rate, we will lose a seat in the house of representatives, for a total of 26 New York reps, after redistricting. So, deciding how those seats will go, the House district lines will be redrawn later this year after the Census Bureau releases data on local populations changes.

Adwoa Adusei Redistricting is going to happen at a local level, too. Before the 2023 election cycle, some of the state’s cities, counties and towns will re-draw voting lines — and New York City is one of them. So, breaking down redistricting: each district has to have the same number of people. In a city as densely populated as New York City, that means that district lines are sometimes drawn down the middle of a block. NYC’s new mayor and city council will appoint a commission to re-draw city council lines by the end of next year … and you can have a say in the process!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras And the library is going to help. We will be hosting redistricting events in the coming months, so that everyone in Brooklyn can see detailed maps of their districts and learn about the communities of interest in their neighborhoods. And, while you're doing this, you should be asking yourself whether your district makes sense to you. Does it map to what you think of your neighborhood? Does the district divide over racial and ethnic communities in different ways, and are you happy with that? 

Adwoa Adusei Right. Districts should be designed not only to count people equally, but also to give minority communities a cohesive voice, and reflect the values of different neighborhoods.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So, if you have only one takeaway from this civic PSA … it should be that your voice and your vote really matter in New York City right now. So, to really understand your ranked choice voting ballot, we recommend that you go to Elect NYC [dot] org to see who’s running in your district. You can also check your voter registration status at that website and find out where your early voting polling site is verses your election day polling site. All of that is on Elect NYC [dot] org.

Adwoa Adusei And remember, the library has a lot of resources, too! The deadline to register in time for the NYC primary is Friday, May 28. So, we are holding in-person voter registration events at Canarsie Library, Macon Library, and Central Library today and tomorrow. After the voting registration deadline, we will continue to run virtual ranked choice voting workshops. We’ll put a link in our show notes so you can find the dates and locations for those events.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras And finally, we’ve been partnering with Politics NY [dot] com to host candidate debates for every city council race in the borough. So, you can watch recordings of those debates on Politics NY [dot] com and that will help you get to know your city council candidates. We’ll put links to all of these resources on our show notes page, so if you only remember one URL about your ranked choice voting options — remember BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] podcasts.

Adwoa Adusei Our show is produced by Virginia Marshall and written by Virginia Marshall and me, with help from Fritzi Bodenheimer, Jennifer Proffitt, Meryl Friedman, and Robin Lester Kenton. Our music composer is Billy Libby.  

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Borrowed is brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library and is hosted by me, Krissa Corbett Cavouras, and Adwoa Adusei. And, that’s it for us for a little while. But we are going to catch you again at the end of the summer with an awesome min-series about communities that built Brooklyn. We are so excited. You’re not going to want to miss it.

Adwoa Adusei And remember to vote in the New York City primary on or before June 22!