Editorial: Making every New York voter count -- A ranked-choice nonpartisan election is always the best way

In 2021, Eric Adams was the first mayor in New York City history elected through a ranked-choice partisan primary. That system — which lets voters put their choices in order and then recycles their second- and third- and fourth-choice votes as their first- and second- and third-choice candidates fall away — is a big improvement over what came before.

Before, a primary candidate could win in a crowded field with just 40% support. Given that a low-turnout Democratic Party contest generally determined the certain victor in the November general election, that could amount to a very small share of the electorate essentially selecting the mayor.

But ranked-choice voting makes much, much, much more sense when it applies not to a closed partisan primary but to an all-comers contest. We still don’t have that in New York City — with one exception.

The exception is special elections that happen when an incumbent steps down. In this case, the incumbent could be Adams himself. If he vacates the mayoralty, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would ascend to the job for a brief period of time during which candidates left, right and center, regardless of party affiliation or lack thereof, would offer themselves to voters — and then one would win a ranked-choice special election.

That’s a far more small-d democratic way to pick the leader of New York City.

Why? First and foremost, because it enfranchises all the New Yorkers who can’t vote in a closed Democratic primary. In the nation’s biggest city today, there are 5.15 million registered voters — 3.4 million (66%) of whom are Democrats, 1.1 million (21%) of whom are independents registered with no party, 530,000 (10.2%) of whom are Republicans. A primary that reliably determines the ultimate victor while shutting out 34% of the electorate is not fundamentally fair.

Some critics of the ranked-choice system New York City built for itself think the system is rigged to favor Democratic candidates, but that’s not quite right. It skews in favor of whichever Democrat is likeliest to win a closed primary with relatively low turnout.

An equally big flaw is that, given that the two-party duopoly even in our overwhelmingly Democratic city, it always reserves a slot on the general election ballot for a Republican, even if that Republican is far, far, far from the second most viable candidate for mayor in the city. Curtis Sliwa, Nicole Malliotakis and Joe Lhota never really had a chance.

An intelligent system would say to voters: Everyone, including independents and Republicans and minor party members, should come to the polls and vote in a ranked-choice primary election to choose their favorite candidate, among all contenders. Then those who emerge from that scrum face off in a ranked-choice general election. That system is usually called Final Five Voting, and it’s taken off in a number of cities and states. It gives every ballot an equal weight.

If Adams, either by his own decision or by others (including Gov. Hochul and U.S. Attorney Damian Williams) leaves office, there would be a wide open choice for the voting public. But this far superior method shouldn’t be reserved only for special elections and should be the regular course of business every four years.

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