NYC election results delayed by ranked-choice voting
by Harry Roth
New York City's first ever use of ranked-choice voting for City Council primary elections was on June 27th. It’s been over a week, and voters are still awaiting results from multiple races. This delay isn’t an oddity, but a reality of ranked-choice voting.
With ranked-choice voting, the tabulation process is grueling and marred by week-long delays. When no candidate gets over 50% of the votes in the first round, the tabulation process continues, and votes are retabulated until the 50% threshold is achieved. All the while, voters’ next-ranked picks are moved up to their first-place vote. Some ballots are “exhausted” and eliminated. All this can result in candidates that received the most second-place votes winning.
It’s clear that New Yorkers are already fed up with the city’s mismanagement of elections. NYC should repeal ranked-choice voting and end this failed experiment before voters lose faith in the election system entirely.