In spite of ranked-choice voting, splitting the progressive vote is how Eric Adams got elected and it's how Cuomo is probably going to get elected too. Everybody who isn't Cuomo should already be out of the race and let Mamdani have his best shot.
I definitely had this initial reaction. Do you think ranking has enough of a psychological impact on voters to get them to leave off a potentially winning candidate from their slate? Or if that's not it, can you say why RCV doesn't solve this problem?
What happened for years ago is that a large number of people only cast one vote. That meant that a lot of ballots dropped out as the counting went through different rounds.
Mayoral candidates should do tiered/ranked endorsements, like national primaries. Actively communicate who is on their list and who is off. Probably too bitter a pill to get them to number them but at least give their supporters a sense of who's a good alternate and who isn't
Candidates who aren't sufficiently well known will simply not win. RCV isn't designed for a scenario with a single well known (but unliked) candidate and dozens of other unknown candidates. The other votes will simply be too scattered and too few.
The trick is convincing people it's fine to rank a few other candidates than their favorite because they're "just backups", convincing as many people as possible to add several options, focusing on the most viable candidates, so at least one end up on enough ballots
This happened because you had groups like NYCC out there *telling people to only vote for Wiley*. I’m sorry but if Alaska and Maine can figure out RCV, I’m super confident New York City can, it just requires people drop their petty squabbles and purity tests.
What I’m talking about is that a large number of people still treat the ballot like a traditional one-vote ballot, so they cast one vote and they’re done. That’s why Adams beat the two women who possibly could have beaten him one-on-one. And Cuomo could beat the divided progressive field this year.
Yes, and in 2021 prominent progressive organizers were actively promoting treating it as a one-vote ballot to their followers by saying that they couldn’t possibly vote for Garcia and complaining that the system was too complicated.
no petty squabbles or purity tests here. i just see "don't rank cuomo" as the only message breaking through and people don't understand who they should actually be voting *for*.
i think there's still a lot of educating to do on RCV, so we have to continue that work while giving folks an actionable plan for an election that's in less than a month
Rallying behind a DSA- endorsed Bernie Bro who hates Jews for the mayoral race in the city with America’s biggest Jewish population is a bold move, Cotton, let’s see how that plays out.
NY voters should line up behind a slate of their fave *5* non-Cuomo Dems, with Mamdani as #1. The primary is RCV & it’s been suggested that Dems not filling out all slots on their ballots got them Adams instead of Garcia last time, thru the weird workings of RCV. Endorsements should be slates, too.
We also could have had Kathryn Garcia if certain progressive groups hadn’t told their constituents that she was somehow too conservative to be better than Adams.
Thing is, in this case they could a) still vote and b) vote for their desired candidate, but they have to be willing to vote for someone who isn’t *exactly* aligned with their preferences (because that’s the whole point of the RCV system that groups like NYCC say is too “complicated”).
But yes, RCV allows you to vote for your preferred candidate and then four others who come the closest. Which really should *encourage* participation - you get to vote against the worst candidate(s) FIVE TIMES!
totally Mamdani-pilled myself, but isn't it useful to have 5 progressive candidates (ranked however) to keep Cuomo out? Really asking. Splitting the votes isn't the same kind of issue here, is it?
Well anyway, there's enough confusion about this that it's worth digging in I think? The best explanation I've seen is by @meganpiont.bsky.social : if you rank fewer than 5 or all your candidates are eliminated by the decisive round, your ballot is inactive.
Adams beat Garcia by 7,197 votes. 140,202 ballot were inactive by this round. If 5% of those people had ranked Garcia at all, she would have won. These are small enough numbers that ranking 5 different people you are willing to see as mayor is really worth it. just #dontrankCuomo
Lots of what ifs with that... Another 5% of them could have ranked Adams, or maybe even Wiley (she was the last candidate ejected). But your point remains: use all five slots.
There's zero chance that the OP (brilliant independent journalist @marisakabas.bsky.social )is part of a secret leftist ploy to blame people other than his voters for the fate of Cuomo. She wasn't even at the last secret leftist ploy meeting!
I wasn’t claiming that she is, but I saw this happen last time with Wylie where progressive groups applied a purity test to every other candidate (contrary to how RCV is supposed to work) and blamed the rest of us for not lining up behind that individual (even when we ranked said individual).
You really should rank 5 insofar as there are more than 5 candidates (so there's a chance of getting to round 5, where your choice in that slot could be up against Cuomo IF you filled that slot non-Cuomoily).
Arguably it's unlikely to get to round 5 so it's not that critical, but still
The "you don't need to rank 5 just don't rank Cuomo" applies to the situation where there are 5 candidates or fewer, and "you must rank 5" advice on its own might lead people to rank Cuomo out of misguided completude.
Um it's a thing I gathered from the last time I talked about NYC ranked-choice voting as a non-New Yorker who only knows about it from bsky conversations and said complete nonsense at the time so uh maybe I should have caveated my post with that
Wait! I think you /do/need to rank 5. Garcia would have won in the last round last time if people had filled out the full ballot even with already eliminated candidates, no?
It’s true that your ballot can become inactive if you haven’t ranked the person that either wins or comes in second. For this reason it’s important to rank someone who you think can actually win somewhere on your ballot.
Is there something in America's water that makes even women impervious to well-established and -substantiated reputations of candidates as sexual assailants/creeps?
Cuomo may be the closest thing Dems have to Trump, and NYers are saying, "Well, MAYbe?"
That has a whole lot less to do with Cuomo's disgusting activity & more to do with a lot of the old guard being Cuomo ball lickers ever since that family got involved in New York politics.
With RCV we don't need to "unite" so much as to not rank Cuomo. The RCV winnowing process will do the uniting. (A different concern is the general - - Cuomo will have a ballot line even if he doesn't win the Democratic nomination.)
Fight against establishment by screaming so hard, compromise and collaboration, but do nothing when they can easily make big progress. Then "it's voters' fault". Same script.
AOC endorsed Biden in primary, say nothing about Ro Khanna, but so mad about other dems trading stocks, bend over Musk and be performative, her "justice Democrats still fundraising for Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders only can endorse someone when it is useless.
Sanders still deny the genocide, say nothing about when the protesters outing in his rally, defend book sale, million net worth and propagandizing for gerontocracy. His state has a Republican governor for ten years, is he still inactive?
It is far from the best reason to do this, but Trump will ruthlessly and relentlessly attack NYC if Cuomo is mayor. He’ll attack it anyway, but he won't ever let up if Cuomo is in office.
But it’s a long standing tradition that the NYC Mayor has to be a giant pile of shit and Cuomo definitely qualifies under those terms…he’s the biggest pile of shit in the whole state so he has to be considered the front runner
I am voting for ZM, but given the variety of NYC progressives, I would say it's also okay to choose pretty much any other Democrats as long as you *fill all five slots* in the primary with people who are not Andrew Cuomo.
There literally is no reason to “line up” behind any one candidate, that’s the whole point of RCV. Just rank whoever you like and *don’t* rank Cuomo. Mamdani is toxic to a good (dumb) chunk of the electorate and making him the figurehead of the anti-Cuomo vote is super risky.
Progressives are gonna have to figure out it’s an us vs them situation vs the establishment so we’ve got to pick a lane and push that shit hard. Can’t be splitting our own votes.
K. I live in Dan Goldman's district, and your concerns would have been perfectly legitimate when he won the Dem nomination in 2024. I don't have anything "against" him but he faced several competitors who were more progressive and also had genuine legislative experience. We did not have RCV, sadly.
The thing every centrist needs to answer - and y'all should be brave enough to have it tattooed - is "which group do you intend to leave behind". That's always the sticking point between progressives and centrists. Progressives say "leave no one behind". Centrists *always* leave some group behind.
How soon do we need to do this? He's in my top 5. IMO what we need is anti-Cuomo advertising. Direct mail, radio, TV, the whole lot. The marketing parlance used to be "category advertising" & in this case the category is "not Cuomo." Let brand development (specific candidates) be another effort.
RCV will be very helpful in getting a progressive to the forefront, but if there isn't an anti-Cuomo campaign some voters may still gravitate to Cuomo. People need to be reminded of all his baggage, not just the harassment, corruption, covid, but also the Moreland Commission.
i'm still trying to figure out what about Cuomo appeals to voters. is it the nakedly corrupt support for the rich, or the sexual assault, that they want more of?
Ranked voting has been a total failure. New Yorkers have proven they are too stupid to vote, and most of them don't even vote. We're the worst and we're getting the worst.
The progressive candidates need to start telling public to rank them at number 1, and then Zohran number 2. Bc that's how you defeat Cuomo, by having ppl not rank him at all AND rallying behind the candidate with the best chance to win.
Good strategy for the sane candidates to cooperate under RCV voting rules - give recommendations for ranking options which exclude the worst candidates
Totally agree. Lander supporter here but Cuomo is getting elected almost exclusively on name recognition. To counter that, progressives need to be rallying behind one name. That name is obviously Zohran at this point.
so, I live in a city with ranked choice voting, and the key is to not rank the bad candidates AT ALL and to throw support behind the strongest of the good candidates
like, if Brad Lander wants to put out stuff that says “don’t rank Cuomo or Eric Adams, rank me and Zohran and Adrienne (&c.)”
Hello my friend I am very sorry for bothering you My family and I are not well Can you help me to quote the tweet and share and follow And donate😓💔😓💔😓🙏🙏🙏
Please my friend, help me donate, and if you can't, help me quote the tweet and share it. My family is dying of hunger, there is no food, and the crossings are closed. Please don't ignore me. You are our only hope. 🙏🙏🙏🥺💔
Yeah, I feel like the arguments that Lander or Adrienne Adams is more electable just willfully ignore the current reality. The election is a month away, he has maxed out funding, has an army of enthusiastic volunteers, and he's polling in a comfortable second. It's the only real hope.
But with ranked choice, we don’t need to really worry about electability! Rank your favorite first, but be sure to fill out your ballot with 4 more progressives!
Yeah, of course, I don't think the guidance to rank all 5 has changed. I do think it should inform what we put our energy into. I had imagined either Lander or Adams might have made up some ground by now and could pull off something like Garcia did in 2021. That window feels like it's closing.
I still tell people to rank first the person they like best. If that is, say, Adrienne, rank her first. But also rank Mamdani! If she is out of the running, her votes would then be allocated to him.
Comments
Gotta make the options known
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021.08.03_nyag_-_investigative_report.pdf
But yes, RCV allows you to vote for your preferred candidate and then four others who come the closest. Which really should *encourage* participation - you get to vote against the worst candidate(s) FIVE TIMES!
Arguably it's unlikely to get to round 5 so it's not that critical, but still
But this isn't that situation.
Tell you what let me look for links
https://bsky.app/profile/caravellin.bsky.social/post/3llvvsys2sc2s
I think this might be the post my brain translated to "unlikely to get to round 5" (wasn't quite that but equivalent I think - if you're putting longshots by that point they're already out)
https://bsky.app/profile/kktishere.bsky.social/post/3llvzxm3dpc22
Fill out all five spots and #DontRankCuomo.
Is there something in America's water that makes even women impervious to well-established and -substantiated reputations of candidates as sexual assailants/creeps?
Cuomo may be the closest thing Dems have to Trump, and NYers are saying, "Well, MAYbe?"
Empty spots only benefit Cuomo, just like empty spots put Adams in office last time.
Who are the polling? Grandmothers in Queens?
And JFC fuck people for knowing/caring so little that Cuomo is still second
That's how you stop Cuomo from winning in RCV.
like, if Brad Lander wants to put out stuff that says “don’t rank Cuomo or Eric Adams, rank me and Zohran and Adrienne (&c.)”