How NYC's ranked choice voting works for the mayoral primary election
New York City's mayoral election is using ranked choice voting for the June 2025 primary.
Early voting in the race wraps up this weekend ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, June 24.
Mayor Eric Adams is running for reelection as an independent, while a whopping 11 candidates are competing in a crowded Democratic primary. CLICK HERE for interviews with the leading contenders and where they stand on the issues.
What is NYC ranked choice voting?
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, allows voters to rank the candidates from their first to fifth choice. Advocates say it gives more diverse candidates a chance in normally combative elections.
"That means that every individual voter has more power, and voters are more likely to have their choice reflected in the final outcome," explained New York City Campaign Finance Board Assistant Press Secretary Jadel Munguia, adding, "Ranked choice voting benefits voters by giving voters more say in who gets elected. Candidates are more likely to appeal to voters, not attack each other, and voters elect more diverse candidates."
Back in 2019, more than 73% of New Yorkers voted in favor of ranked choice voting. The city then launched a $15 million campaign to educate voters about the new system.
Ranked choice voting was first rolled out in February 2021 for a special election in Queens before taking effect for the citywide elections later that year.
Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio famously asked New Yorkers to practice by ranking their favorite pizza toppings, and later announced pepperoni took home top honors with about 45% of the votes.
How does NYC ranked choice voting work?
Voters will rank their top five choices in order of preference.
You do not have to rank all five, you can rank as many or as few as you like. If you only want to vote for one, then leave the other columns blank.
"Here's what you should avoid doing: You can't rank multiple candidates as your first choice. If you choose more than one candidate as your first choice, your ballot will not be valid," said Munguia. "You can't rank your favorite candidate more than once. If you do so, then only your first ranking will count."
All first-choice votes are counted first. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, they win. If no candidate receives more than 50%, counting will continue in rounds.
At the end of each round, the last-place candidate will be eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate will now have their vote counted for their next choice.
Second-choice votes are only counted if your first-choice is eliminated. If both your first and second choices are eliminated, your vote is counted for your third-choice, and so on.
This process continues until there are two candidates left, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The idea is to prevent a costly run-off election by having voters make their order of choices clear in the first place.
Ranked choice voting can also create some unusual alliances where candidates, parties and other prominent figures offer guidance to voters about how they should rank their choices.
For example in this race, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has cross-endorsed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and former state Assemblyman Michael Blake as they try to team up against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Meanwhile, State Sen. Jessica Ramos made a surprise decision to endorse Cuomo.
"It revolutionizes how we vote moving forward. It's going to create allegiances early on, and that's what you're seeing now," political expert J.C. Polanco explained.
When will we know the election results?
The first unofficial election results will be posted when polls close on Election Day. These include first-choice votes from early voting, Election Day and valid mail ballots.
Then, ranked choice elimination rounds will be conducted, and reports will be released each week until the results are certified.
Officials say the results will not be certified until all ballots are counted, including early mail, absentee, military, affidavit and emergency.
"The New York City Board of Elections will share unofficial first choice election results after polls close at 9 p.m. Election Day, Tuesday June 24. However, preliminary non-certified results are shared a week after the election," said Munguia. "But final results in ranked choice voting elections will not be known until all absentee and mail-in ballots are counted, which could take several weeks after Election Day."
An exit poll after the 2021 primary elections showed 95% of voters found the ballot simple to fill out, and 75% said they wanted to use ranked choice voting again. The state Assembly later met to discuss what did and did not work, pointing to some confusion and the long wait for the results.
In that mayoral primary, the final results were certified nearly a month after the election. Then-Democratic nominee Eric Adams said he supported the system but questioned the rollout.
