In the beginning of January, NYC Mayor de Blasio declared a special election for two open City Council districts on March 23^rd.  This year is already an election year for many NYC positions, including mayor, public advocate, district attorney, borough presidents, and local city council members.  But four district constituents will also be holding a Special Election for local city council members.

Many political analysts anticipate rank choice voting gaining momentum and steam in major US markets as a means to engaging more of the voting base and diversifying political bodies on a local and state level.

Special Elections are called to fill vacated seats.  Seats can be vacated for a variety of reasons including new appointments, accepting new roles within local, state or federal government, or resigning.

There are two special elections in The Bronx’s for the 11^th and 15^th districts.  The 11^th district seat was previously held by Andrew Cohen who accepted a judgeship in 2020.  The 15^th district seat was previously held by Ritchie Torres who was elected as a congressman for NY D-15 in the 2020 general election.  As Congressman Torres, he automatically vacated his seat.

There are two special elections in Queens for the 24th and 31st districts.  The 24th district was held by Rory Lancman, who resigned to accept a position in Governor Cuomo’s administration in fall 2020.  Lancman would have also hit councilmember term limits and would have been ineligible to run in 2021.  The 31st in Queens was held by Donovan Richards until December 2, 2020 when he was sworn in as the Queens borough president.

Quite a few things, actually.  And this year, as an election year, the stakes are higher.

1. Special Election candidates must run as nonpartisan – meaning no party affiliation to either Democratic, Republican, Independent, Green, etc. parties. As a result, candidates get creative with their platform names as a means of signaling their affiliation.
2. Candidates who win will begin their term immediately, but will, weirdly, still be campaigning. Why? Because the winner must run against the two-party winners in the June 2021 primary election and continue campaigning to the November general election. The winner of the November election will serve as City Council member for two years.
3. The candidate who wins the Special Election will be the City Council member for the remainder of 2021, whether they win or lose the primary or general elections later in the year.
4. This year is the first year that rank choice voting is being implemented.

Rank choice voting was an addition to the 2019 ballot for New Yorkers to vote on and it passed by over 73%.  This is the first year it will be implemented. In a rank choice voting system, voters can select up to 5 candidates in order of preference, instead of just picking one candidate.  In every other election, constituents select – either via paper ballot or electronically – one candidate and “bubble” them in.  Now, candidates can be ranked.

Voters can still choose to only vote for one candidate, or any number up to five, so long as no candidate is ranked twice. For example, you cannot select Candidate A as the first and third pick.

The candidate who receives more than 50% of the FIRST PLACE vote will win.

If no candidate receives at least 50% of the FIRST PLACE vote, then counting continues in rounds where the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated in each round.  If the voters top-choice (candidate in position #1) is eliminated, their votes go to the second candidate and so on.  So if Candidate A is eliminated, their votes will go to Candidate B. This continues until one candidate has received at least 50% of the votes.

Yes! It gives voters more of a say in elections because while the first choice may not be elected, perhaps the second or third choice is elected.  Rank choice voting forces candidates and their campaigns to diversify their messaging to appeal to a wider portion of the constituent base.  Campaigns in rank choice voting systems tend to have more streamlined messaging, less candidate versus candidate “dirty politics,” and real connection on the local level since candidates have to appeal to a broad stroke of the voting base.

Several major cities and several states have implemented state-wide rank choice voting.   It’s currently used in Santa Fe, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland, Memphis, Aspen, Berkeley, and even throughout the entire states of Massachusetts. Maine, and Alaska.

You can learn more about rank choice voting with the NY Campaign Finance Board here.

The NYC Special Election is on March 23rd.  Find your district, check your voting eligibility, and more with NYC VOTES here.