Inwood Indivisible

Ranked Choice Voting

Our endorsements are in!

Whether you follow our recommendations or not, please rank a full slate of five candidates and do not rank Andrew Cuomo. Find out more about Cuomo.

White text on a black bakcground reading Zohran & Brad & Adrienne & Scott & Zellnor.

How does it work?

Watch this fun video!

Strategy

  1. Rank the person you like best as your number 1.
  2. Continue through the columns, marking your second-favorite in the 2 column, third-favorite in the 3 column, etc. (see sample ballot at the bottom of this page)
  3. If there are enough candidates, the best strategy is to fill up all five slots.
  4. Don’t rank the same candidate in more than one slot. Your top vote for them will count and the others will be ignored.
  5. Don’t rank anyone you don’t want to win. Ranking someone, even in the fifth slot, can only help them and won’t hurt them.

Why Fill All Five Slots?

  1. If you leave a blank, someone else gets to fill it.
  2. Filling all five slots does not weaken your top picks in any way.
  3. A New York Times analysis of the 2021 mayoral primary found that if 5 percent of voters had ranked Kathryn Garcia instead of leaving a blank, she would have won.
NYT screenshot of a graphic with text. The graphic shows 140,202 Inactive Ballots in Round 8 of voting. Adams has 50.4% or 404,513 votes. Garcia has 49.6% or 397,316 votes. Text: The 8th and last round of counting ended with 140,202 inactive ballots — nearly 20 times Adams's margin of victory. If roughly 5 percent of the inactive ballots had featured Garcia in any position, she would have beaten Adams.
In the later rounds of counting, your ballot becomes “inactive” if you leave a blank. That’s what happened to 140,202 voters in the final round of ranked-choice counting in 2021.

Why are We Doing This Anyway?

In a 2019 ballot question, New York City voters chose to move to a ranked-choice system in primary and special elections. New York State does not have ranked-choice voting, so you won’t see it in elections for governor, congress and other statewide positions.

Some advantages of ranked-choice voting:

  • It gives you more say in who gets elected. Even if your top choice does not win, you can still help choose who does.
  • It gives you more choices. You can rank up to five candidates, allowing you to support your favorite candidate without worrying about whether they’re likely to win. 
  • Some studies have found that ranked-choice voting helps elect more diverse candidates.
  • It saves money by eliminating runoff elections.

Sample 2025 Mayoral Ballot

A sample ballot with a list of all the mayoral candidates down the left-hand side, and 5 vertical columns of ovals to fill in to indicate your preferences.