New York City Elections

[Kaylee]

Do we have enough members from New York City to have a thread on the city's June primary elections?,

In my district alone these are the offices that are going to be on the Democratic primary ballot:

Mayor (12 candidates)
Public Advocate ( 3)
Comptroller (10)
District Attorney (8)

This doesn't include the borough presidents (5 in NYC for each of the boroughs), city council elections, and civil court elections.

What may interest those who don't live in NYC is that 5 of the offices will have ranked choice voting for the first time -- up to 5 choices per office. Here's an example of how the board of elections explains ranked voting: Simple Ranked Vote Demo/


Early voting starts on the 12th and the last day of voting is on election day.

It can always be a challenge to decide who to vote for but with ranked voting instead of selecting 5 politicians for 5 offices, one can choose up to 23 politicians for 5 offices (one office only has 3 candidates running vs 5). I'm finding that especially challenging and I admit to only starting to learn about many of the candidates as I've been super busy this year. However, I've never been a fan of the idea of someone running for a significant office with no experience of having held any elected position - so that is making the winnowing process easier for me. But it's a little scary to see how many people in that category are running for mayor...

 

[BobTheCoward]

Do we have enough members from New York City to have a thread on the city's June primary elections?,

In my district alone these are the offices that are going to be on the Democratic primary ballot:

Mayor (12 candidates)
Public Advocate ( 3)
Comptroller (10)
District Attorney (8)

This doesn't include the borough presidents (5 in NYC for each of the boroughs), city council elections, and civil court elections.

What may interest those who don't live in NYC is that 5 of the offices will have ranked choice voting for the first time -- up to 5 choices per office. Here's an example of how the board of elections explains ranked voting: Simple Ranked Vote Demo/


Early voting starts on the 12th and the last day of voting is on election day.

It can always be a challenge to decide who to vote for but with ranked voting instead of selecting 5 politicians for 5 offices, one can choose up to 23 politicians for 5 offices (one office only has 3 candidates running vs 5). I'm finding that especially challenging and I admit to only starting to learn about many of the candidates as I've been super busy this year. However, I've never been a fan of the idea of someone running for a significant office with no experience of having held any elected position - so that is making the winnowing process easier for me. But it's a little scary to see how many people in that category are running for mayor...

Should you vote if you have so little knowledge about the candidates? How do you know if starting now is enough time to sufficiently inform yourself?

 

[Stacyhs]

Should you vote if you have so little knowledge about the candidates? How do you know if starting now is enough time to sufficiently inform yourself?

Oh, good lord.

 

[Kaylee]

Should you vote if you have so little knowledge about the candidates? How do you know if starting now is enough time to sufficiently inform yourself?

I think there's time if I use it wisely. At a minimum, I know enough to decide whether to vote for people who have held elected office for years, have a voting record, and have gone on record by various methods such as deciding what bills to sponsor.

How would you justify not trying at all?

 

[BobTheCoward]

I think there's time if I use it wisely. At a minimum, I know enough to decide whether to vote for people who have held elected office for years, have a voting record, and have gone on record by various methods such as deciding what bills to sponsor.

How would you justify not trying at all?

I have about four different takes to your question. I won't bother you with them and derail if you want this to focus on the specifics.

 

[jrhowell]

What may interest those who don't live in NYC is that 5 of the offices will have ranked choice voting for the first time -- up to 5 choices per office. Here's an example of how the board of elections explains ranked voting: Simple Ranked Vote Demo/

From the sample:

Rank up to 5 choices.
Only rank one candidate per column
Don’t rank any candidate more than once

Three simple instructions. What could go wrong?

I'm thinking that there will be a significant number of spoiled ballots.

 

[Kaylee]

From the sample:



Three simple instructions. What could go wrong?

I'm thinking that there will be a significant number of spoiled ballots.

Maybe. I'm wondering if that issue will be covered in the news.

For what it's worth I'm pretty most of the spoiled ballots will be for one or some positions but not the entire ballot. Let's say a voter breaks rule # 2 for the mayor's position, but does everything else correctly. Their ballot will have no selection registered for mayor and the rest of their ballot will be counted as marked.

Let's say a voter breaks rule #3 and casts their vote for the same person in all 5 ranks for mayor. The voting machine is programmed to count the vote cast for mayor in the first rank and disregard the choices for the remaining 4 ranks. This mistake won't prevent the machine from attempting to count the votes cast for the other positions.

Yeah, i think there will be some partially spoiled ballots but not that many completely spoiled ballots.

ETA - There are more instructions elsewhere on the web site such as making sure to fill in the entire circle for your choice and not to use Xs or checkmarks. Using checkmarks instead of filling in the circle for all of your choices would definitely spoil the entire ballot, but that is not a new rule in NYC elections.

As an aside, I resent being expected to cast up to 23 votes for 5 positions as I don't think there are that many good candidates and it will be a lot of work to thoughtfully make 23 real choices. But other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out and what the voters reactions to the experience will be. As far as I know, it will be the first time ranked voting is used in NYC for a political election.

 

[mumblethrax]

NYC mayoral elections are always a bit grim, but this one is especially so. At least Andrew Yang seems to have tanked his early lead.

The addition of ranked choice voting is interesting, but eliminating off-year elections and permitting non-citizen voting would probably be more meaningful democratic reforms. Turnout in 2017 was a dismal 18%, and I doubt it will be much higher this time.

 

[BobTheCoward]

NYC mayoral elections are always a bit grim, but this one is especially so. At least Andrew Yang seems to have tanked his early lead.

The addition of ranked choice voting is interesting, but eliminating off-year elections and permitting non-citizen voting would probably be more meaningful democratic reforms. Turnout in 2017 was a dismal 18%, and I doubt it will be much higher this time.

I have trouble complaining about the off year election thing. Why is turnout lower? If people just don't care as much, I'm not clear why you want those same people to vote.

 

[mumblethrax]

I have trouble complaining about the off year election thing. Why is turnout lower?

Because it's an off-year election. Fewer high-profile races, less effort spent on broad turnout drives.

And this probably isn't a coincidence--the local party machine prefers it this way. They've resisted early voting reforms for decades for much the same reason.

In any case, I don't see any reason to accept the claim that I don't want the people who don't turn out to vote. It's premised on the long-debunked idea that non-voters are immutably disinterested.

 

[BobTheCoward]

Because it's an off-year election. Fewer high-profile races, less effort spent on broad turnout drives.

And this probably isn't a coincidence--the local party machine prefers it this way. They've resisted early voting reforms for decades for much the same reason.

In any case, I don't see any reason to accept the claim that I don't want the people who don't turn out to vote. It's premised on the long-debunked idea that non-voters are immutably disinterested.

But why would you want the vote on Y to reflect the votes of people that wouldn't bother to vote for Y when Y is by itself?

 

[mumblethrax]

But why would you want the vote on Y to reflect the votes of people that wouldn't bother to vote for Y when Y is by itself?

Because people are affected by the outcome of elections irrespective of whether they vote. It's better when turnout is higher for the same reason it's better to have democratic elections in the first place--it legitimizes outcomes on the standard liberal self-government account. It's a bad situation that our current mayor was re-elected with something like 14% of the eligible vote, particularly when so many New Yorkers aren't eligible to vote.

 

[Puppycow]

Adams has a sizable lead after chaotic New York primary

Well Andrew Yang won't be the next mayor of New York.

There's still some counting left because it's ranked choice voting and nobody got an absolute majority on the first ballot. However, Eric Adams appears to have a sizable lead.

NEW YORK — Eric Adams rode an anti-crime message to a commanding lead in the crowded race to replace outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, ousting former presidential contender Andrew Yang and holding off nearly a dozen other Democrats.

But under New York’s new ranked-choice voting system, the election now heads into an instant runoff that could last for weeks and keep the Brooklyn borough president from officially claiming his party’s nomination.

An "instant" runoff that could last for weeks.

And of course this is still just the primary, but most people seem to think that whoever wins the Democratic primary will go on to win the general election too.



Analysis: Crime is up sharply in New York City, so a "tough on crime" political message seems to be a winning message even among New York City Democratic Primary voters. Adams is a former police officer.

 

[mumblethrax]

And of course this is still just the primary, but most people seem to think that whoever wins the Democratic primary will go on to win the general election too.

Given that Curtis Sliwa won the Republican primary, I certainly hope so.

 

[dudalb]

Given that Curtis Sliwa won the Republican primary, I certainly hope so.

Given the Silwa thinks law enforcement should have the right to be judge, jury and executioner, I agree.
it is interesting the Silwa, who has made no bones about despising Trump, (one of the very few things I can say in his favor) was introduced by Giuliani. Maybe even Giuliani sees that Trump is not going to hold public office again.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

Silwa was running against a man who claimed that Trump won the 2020 election. I think either way the GOP needs to lose.

 

[Stacyhs]

Adams has a sizable lead after chaotic New York primary

Well Andrew Yang won't be the next mayor of New York.

There's still some counting left because it's ranked choice voting and nobody got an absolute majority on the first ballot. However, Eric Adams appears to have a sizable lead.



An "instant" runoff that could last for weeks.

And of course this is still just the primary, but most people seem to think that whoever wins the Democratic primary will go on to win the general election too.



Analysis: Crime is up sharply in New York City, so a "tough on crime" political message seems to be a winning message even among New York City Democratic Primary voters. Adams is a former police officer.

Tell that to Joecool who "just wondered" if the new mayor will prioritize elimination of police and jails.

 

[dudalb]

I got a feeling Yang did poorly because of a backlash feeling that maybe electing people, however sucessful in business they might be, have never held elective office or a government position to a high, leadership position, might not be a good idea...

 

[Norman Alexander]

Why does this type of election need to take "weeks" to count? We have this here in Australia, and it can be done in hours, in time for trends to be on the evening news.

 

[mumblethrax]

I got a feeling Yang did poorly because of a backlash feeling that maybe electing people, however sucessful in business they might be, have never held elective office or a government position to a high, leadership position, might not be a good idea...

Probably had more to do with him putting his foot in his mouth three times a day.