New documentary argues ranked-choice voting will boost democracy from Alaska to NYC
Could the solution to New York’s notoriously low voter turnout – and even the nation’s hyper-partisan divide – be to change how we all vote?
New York City voters are probably already familiar with ranked-choice voting. The city adopted a version of the system through a 2019 ballot measure, but it is only used for primaries and special elections for municipal elected offices — at least for now. At the state level, a proposed bill would expand the use of ranked-choice voting for all state and local offices.
Every single voter, including independents, would get the same ballot and it listed every single person who's going to run for each office. In the House race, Alaska only has one House member and they had a special election and 48 people ran for that position.
That's abysmally low. And ... that allows the candidates in those elections to really just cater to the most extreme elements of the party that are voting in these elections. A lot of these elections are decided by the primary. We have districts where the enrollment advantage is so steep that the primary election decides the race.
But I think, we can look at a lot of these races, particularly when there's more than say, two or three candidates and where you have the chance that someone's going to end up winning with 30-some percent, is that really who the majority would like to be in that seat? I think that that's one of the benefits of ranked-choice voting.
And it's based off of success in both Alaska and California. And I would say that, you know, New York and Brooklyn is lucky to have someone like Bobby Carroll that's seen around the corner and looking for solutions here.Here's what we found in 2021 with the implementation in New York City. One of the things we talk about is we think ranked-choice voting is going to drive up turnout.
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