New York City and Charlottesville, VA will use RCV to pick nominees for their
local offices. Donate Today Dear John,

June is a big month forranked choice voting(RCV) in primary elections.On
Tuesday,Charlottesville, VA will use RCV for the first time to choose nominees
for City Council. One week after that, New York City will use RCV for the third
time – choosing nominees for the much-watched race for mayor, as well as City
Council, borough presidents, and other citywide offices. Early voting begins
tomorrow.

Here’s what to know about both cities’ elections.

First use of RCV in Charlottesville

Last September, the Charlottesville City Councilvoted to pilotranked choice
voting in its 2025 primary election – following a string of successful uses
across the state:

* Virginia Republicans haverepeatedly used RCVto choose party leaders and
nominees – including to pick their state party chair in 2020, to nominate
Governor Glenn Youngkin and their winning slate of statewide candidates in
2021, and to choose congressional candidates in 2022.
* Arlington County first piloted RCV in its 2023 primary election. The reform
was so popular that the county made RCV permanent for primaries and expanded
it to general elections as well.

Prior to RCV, Charlottesville chose its City Council members using
winner-take-all block voting. That system allowed the largest group of voters to
effectively pick every council member, locking other groups out of
representation. As our friends atRanked Choice Voting Virginiashare:

"If white residents are the largest voting block, racial minorities tend to be
underrepresented among the winning candidates – even relative to their share of
the voters. If most voters are homeowners, then renters tend to be
underrepresented, too."

This year, Charlottesville will use the gold-standard,proportional form of
ranked choice voting, meaning all voters will have a say in who serves on the
City Council. Voters will no longer have to be in the largest voting bloc to
help elect a candidate of their choice, opening the door to candidates from
traditionally underrepresented communities.

New York City

On June 24, New York City will hold the largest ranked choice voting election of
the year – as voters choose nominees for mayor and other local offices. In New
York City’sfirst useof RCV in 2021, 95% of voters said it was simple and 87%
ranked at least two candidates.

The Democratic primary for mayor is a packed field, with 11 candidates on the
ballot. In a single-choice election, that would likely mean no candidate would
earn a majority of the vote – as we just saw inNew Jersey’s Democratic primary
for governor this week. But ranked choice voting will help New York voters
identify a majority winner in a crowded field.

Online practice ballot fromnycvotes.org

Notably, RCV frees voters, elected leaders, and organizations to support
multiple candidates that they like. For instance, Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortezrecently endorsedfive candidates for mayor, and specified which she
would rank first and second. Several labor unions and community organizations
havealso endorsedmore than one candidate.

Moreover, RCV encourages candidates to play nice, since they may need their
rivals’ supporters to rank them as a backup choice. Just today, candidates
Zohran Mamdani and Brad Landerendorsed each otheras second choices for mayor.
Yesterday, mayoral candidate Whitney Tilsonsaid he'd rankcompetitor Andrew Cuomo
second. We've even seen candidatesraise fundsfor their competitors, andwalk
arm-in-armwith each other to joint campaign events.

In addition to the Democratic mayoral primary, there are 19 Democratic and
Republican primary elections with three or more candidates on the ballot. RCV
will help voters in each of these elections make their voices heard.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message! Stay tuned for more on this
year’s RCV elections, and ways to get involved in the movement for better
elections.

Best,
Deb Otis
Director of Research and Policy

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