How New York City’s Ranked-Choice Voting System Works in Mayoral Elections

Key takeaways

• Voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference, with only one candidate selected per ranking position
• If no candidate receives over 50% of first-choice votes, the last-place finisher is eliminated and those votes are redistributed based on voters’ next preferences
• The elimination process repeats in successive rounds until one candidate exceeds 50%, with preliminary ranked-choice results released approximately one week after Election Day and final certification occurring only after all ballots are counted

New York City’s ranked-choice voting system, first used in a mayoral election in 2021, fundamentally changes how voters select candidates and how election officials tally ballots. Adopted through a 2019 charter amendment approved by 73.5 percent of NYC voters, the system replaced traditional plurality voting in primary and special elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and city council. Rather than choosing a single candidate, voters now rank up to five candidates by preference. The system requires a candidate to win an outright majority—more than 50 percent of the vote—rather than merely securing the most votes in a crowded field.

The process involves multiple rounds of tabulation in which last-place candidates are eliminated and their votes redistributed based on voters’ next preferences. This method addresses a long-standing challenge in plurality voting: candidates can win with minority support when the opposition is fragmented. Understanding how this system works, and when results are officially certified, helps voters make informed choices in mayoral primaries and general elections.

Why New York City adopted ranked-choice voting

Under traditional plurality voting, a candidate could win a crowded primary with far less than a majority of the vote, even though most voters preferred another candidate. This dynamic particularly affected New York City’s Democratic primary, where numerous viable candidates often competed for the nomination. Ranked-choice voting, also called instant runoff voting, addresses these concerns by allowing voters to express preferences beyond their first choice without fear of wasting their vote.

Supporters say the system reduces what voting theorists call wasted votes—ballots cast for candidates who finish far behind the winner and thus have no influence on the outcome—though some political scientists dispute how much it actually reduces this effect compared with plurality voting. It also reduces vote-splitting among similar candidates by allowing voters to safely rank their genuine first preference without worrying that doing so might help elect their least-preferred candidate. New York City voters approved the 2019 charter amendment by a decisive margin, fundamentally reshaping how the city selects municipal leaders.

Key dates in the ranked-choice timeline
Unofficial first-choice results are released on election night. Preliminary ranked-choice elimination results are released approximately one week later, with weekly reports continuing until final certification. Final results are not certified until all ballots, including mail-in, affidavit, military, and emergency ballots, are fully counted and verified—a process that typically takes several weeks.

How voters mark their ballots

Voters fill out ranked-choice ballots by indicating their preferences in separate columns, each labeled with a ranking number from one to five. A voter may rank as many candidates as they wish, up to a maximum of five, or rank as few as one. For each ranking column, voters select only one candidate; ranking the same candidate twice invalidates that additional ranking. The rules are designed to prevent confusion and ensure each vote counts as intended.

Voters need not rank all available candidates if they lack preference information about lower-tier candidates. Importantly, ranking additional candidates does not reduce the strength of a voter’s first choice in any way. If a voter’s preferred candidate finishes the race before the final round, their vote automatically transfers to their second choice, regardless of how many other candidates they ranked. This feature addresses a key psychological barrier to ranked voting: voters often fear that ranking second and third choices will somehow disadvantage their top pick.

The elimination and tabulation process

In the first round of tabulation, election officials count all first-choice votes across all ballots. If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes, they win immediately and no further rounds are needed. However, crowded fields typically produce no majority winner in round one. When this occurs, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated from the race, and their ballots are reassigned based on voters’ second-choice rankings.

Election officials then count the ballots again in round two, including votes that transferred from the eliminated candidate. If one candidate now exceeds 50 percent, the race is decided. Otherwise, the last-place candidate in round two is eliminated, their votes are redistributed according to voters’ next choice rankings, and round three begins. This process repeats until only two candidates remain; at that point, whichever has the most votes wins the race. The system guarantees that the winner will have a majority of the votes counted in the final round, not merely a plurality.

The 2021 mayoral primary as a detailed case study

The 2021 New York City mayoral election demonstrated the ranked-choice voting system in action with a Democratic primary featuring 13 candidates—a field that would have produced a deeply fragmented plurality outcome under the old system. Held on June 22, 2021, the primary required eight elimination rounds before a winner emerged. The race exemplified both the promise and complexity of ranked-choice tabulation.

In round one, no candidate secured 50 percent of first-choice votes. The candidate with the fewest votes was eliminated, and their ballots redistributed. This process continued through rounds three, four, and five, with Aaron Foldenauer eliminated in round three, Shaun Donovan in round four, and Raymond McGuire and Dianne Morales both eliminated in round five as their vote totals dwindled. By round six, Andrew Yang—who had garnered significant first-choice support—was eliminated. In round seven, Maya Wiley, another leading candidate, was removed from the count.

The race finally narrowed to a two-candidate final between Eric Adams and Kathryn Garcia in round eight. Adams secured 404,513 votes, or 50.4 percent, while Garcia received 397,316 votes, or 49.6 percent. This razor-thin margin—less than 1 percentage point—illustrated how preferences aggregated through the eight elimination rounds could produce an outcome substantially different from the first-round standings. In the general election held on November 2, 2021, Adams won decisively, receiving 753,801 votes (66.99 percent) against Republican Curtis Sliwa’s 312,385 votes (27.76 percent), with a citywide turnout of 1,149,172 voters representing 23.39 percent of registered voters.

Ranking additional candidates does not reduce the strength of a voter’s first choice, and votes that would be wasted under plurality voting automatically transfer to voters’ next preferences.

When results are reported and certified

Election night brings unofficial results showing which candidate led in first-choice votes. These figures give voters and observers an initial sense of the outcome but do not reflect the ranked-choice tabulation process, which is far more complex and requires additional time to complete. First-choice results are released at poll closing so the public understands the initial distribution of voter preferences across candidates.

Preliminary results from the ranked-choice elimination rounds are tabulated and released approximately one week after Election Day. This timeline allows election officials to process the majority of ballots in hand, though the count does not yet include all mail ballots, affidavit ballots, military ballots, and emergency ballots. Rather than waiting for final certification, the Board of Elections releases weekly reports tracking the elimination rounds as votes are processed. Final certification occurs only after every ballot type has been counted, verified, and reconciled—a process that typically takes several weeks and ensures accuracy before results become official.

Where ranked-choice voting applies in New York City

Ranked-choice voting is used in primary and special elections for five citywide or borough-level offices: mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and city council members. These elections include both Democratic and Republican primaries, where applicable, as well as any special elections to fill vacant positions before the next regularly scheduled election.

The system does not apply to elections for federal offices, state offices, or judicial and district attorney races in New York. For New York City’s mayoral contests, the Democratic primary typically draws the most attention because registered Democrats substantially outnumber Republicans in the city, making the primary outcome a strong predictor of the general election winner. In the 2021 Republican mayoral primary, only two candidates competed, so ranked-choice voting played a minimal role in determining that race’s outcome.

Photo: Momos · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons