Tag: New York

NY

  • Ranked-choice voting push reaches Albany, as advocates eye 2027 ballot

    | Noah Love | Spectrum News |

    Albany city leaders are considering a major overhaul to how residents vote, joining a movement that has already reached New York City and cities across the country.

    The Common Council’s Law Committee held meetings this week on ranked-choice voting, a system that could reshape city elections, after a grassroots group delivered more than 3,000 petition signatures to the city clerk in an effort to put the question before voters.

    “Everyone gets a say”

    Dorian Solot, co-chair of Ranked Choice Voting Albany, said the change would eliminate the so-called ‘spoiler effect’ and tends to increase the share of women and candidates of color who win office.

    “We really want to be sure that everyone, regardless of how they’re registered to vote, everyone gets a say in our elections,” Solot said.

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  • Breaking Down Ranked Choice Voting in the 2026 Wisconsin Primary

    | Larry Sandler | Milwaukee Magazine |

    Crowley edged Hong by half a percentage point in the crowded and chaotic Aug. 11 primary, in which four of seven candidates dropped out and Crowley jumped back in, all after ballots were printed and absentee voting was under way. The race’s wild trajectory left some voters wondering how the campaign might have played out in a ranked-choice voting system.

    Under the current system, you only get one vote. And in this state, if you cast an absentee ballot for a candidate who drops out, you can’t change your vote to someone who is still in the race.

    “68,000 votes that could have gone to someone whose candidacy was still alive”

    RCV advocates at Fair Vote call those “zombie votes.” Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and former state development chief Missy Hughes weren’t among the walking dead themselves, but their names remained undead on the Democratic primary ballot after they stopped running. Together they received more than 68,000 votes that could have gone to someone whose candidacy was still alive, in a race decided by less than 3,800 votes. With RCV, their supporters’ second or third choices could have counted toward the outcome. 

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