Voters will use ranked choice voting (RCV) once again in the June 27, 2023 primary for most of the candidates shown on their ballots. Many Harlem residents (with party affiliation), will be able to vote for candidates for City Council.

Ranked choice is used only for primaries, not general elections; come November, we’ll go back to using traditional, top-choice-only voting.

Instead of choosing only one favorite candidate, voters rank up to five candidates in each race.

If one candidate gets more than 50% of the first-place votes, that person wins. If no candidate reaches that majority, however, instead of an expensive run-off election between the top two vote-getters, the ranked-choice method sorts out the best-preferred candidate for the most people.

If your top pick has the fewest first-choice votes among all voters, that candidate is eliminated from the race, and all of those voters’ second-choice picks are counted up. That process continues, with one candidate removed each round, until one candidate has more than half of the first-place votes. 

Here’s an explanation of that in less than 90 seconds by Minnesota Public Radio.

Remember: the first choice is the candidate you love. Your second choice is the candidate that you like. Your third and fourth choice is the candidate you like slightly less. And your fifth choice is the candidate you can stand.

Heart East Harlem