The return of ranked-choice voting comes with a long-shot push to make New York City elections nonpartisan and more inclusive.
The 2023 election cycle in New York City will include races for all 51 members of the City Council, beginning with primary contests in June. These local elections will be conducted using the ranked-choice voting system adopted by voters for local primary and special elections.
The system allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. When the votes are tallied, if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, then the candidate with lowest number of first-rank votes is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate will have their votes transferred to the remaining candidates in order of preference, and the rounds of counting until one candidate reaches the winning threshold.
