Here’s How New Yorkers Feel About Ranked-Choice Voting

New Yorkers are using a new voting system citywide for the first time, but in interviews, many seemed characteristically unfazed: “It’s real easy if people just learn how to read.”

A New York City mayoral race that began over Zoom during the height of the pandemic came down to street campaigning in its final hours on Monday, with as many as half a million voters preparing to cast ballots when polls open on Tuesday. The question is: Will they know what to do with those ballots when they get them? Ready or not, voters will make history in primary elections on Tuesday when New York becomes the largest place in the country to use ranked-choice voting, a system where individuals select up to five candidates in order of preference that has been tried only in Maine and some smaller cities.