Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • The 19th Explains: Why the nursing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon

        Mariel Padilla · September 23
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Voters being helped at a city hall voting center.
Women and people of color’s representation in elected politics has grown in communities that have implemented ranked-choice voting in recent years. (Photo By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Politics

How ranked-choice voting elevates women and people of color seeking office

The New York City mayoral race is the latest example of how an election system that gives voters the option to choose multiple candidates can change the dynamics of campaigning and shatter electability myths.

Barbara Rodriguez

State Politics and Voting Reporter

Barbara Rodriguez portrait

Published

2021-06-17 16:32
4:32
June 17, 2021
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

One of Susan Lerner’s favorite moments of this year’s New York City mayoral race happened toward the end of a Democratic candidate debate in May, when — assuming their first choice would be themselves — the participating contenders were asked about their second choice for the job.

Of the eight candidates, four said they were still weighing their options. But the others named a combination of the three leading women candidates at the time, recognizing that under the city’s new ranked-choice voting, their answers could provide value to supporters.

“Just the fact that that question is being asked, I think, is indicative of a change in mindset,” said Lerner, executive director of New York Common Cause, a national organization that has been educating voters about the system.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Ranked-choice voting has been a boon for underrepresented candidates: Women and people of color’s representation in elected politics has grown in communities that have implemented the system in recent years, potentially creating another solution to reach gender parity and inclusive representation more quickly in local, state and federal elections. And it could help make history when New York City voters finish casting ballots in the mayoral primary election Tuesday: A woman has never been elected mayor of America’s largest city, and only one person of color has ever held the job.

Here’s how ranked-choice voting works: A candidate wins outright if they receive over 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes as a first-choice candidate is eliminated and those voters’ second choice is added into the mix. The process repeats until a candidate gets a majority of the vote. In the New York City mayoral race, voters can choose up to five candidates — Eric Adams, Shaun Donovan, Kathryn Garcia, Ray McGuire, Dianne Morales, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang are among the leading candidates in a packed primary — though they can also just choose one.

New York City voters approved ranked-choice in 2019, and this year will mark its first use in the city in the modern political era. Some civic engagement groups have announced multi-candidate endorsements, while candidates themselves openly complimented some of their competitors, particularly earlier in the race.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Some voting experts believe ranked-choice voting has lowered barriers for candidates who are women or people of color. The single-winner plurality system that dominates American politics often favors incumbents, can lead to more expensive campaigns and run-offs and, most importantly, can create the narrative that two or more women candidates or candidates of color with similar priorities will split the vote for like-minded voters.

“Ranked-choice voting elections can accommodate multiple women candidates without having to pigeonhole these candidates as just the one woman running,” said Deb Otis, a senior research analyst at FairVote, a national organization that has studied ranked-choice voting and previously partnered with RepresentWomen. 

“If we’re electing folks with ranked-choice voting, they’re more accountable to the needs of their voters or else they lose their seats,” said Otis, who co-authored a recent report that looked at the effects of ranked-choice voting on people of color candidates and voters. “They have to build a campaign that speaks to a broad base of voters rather than pandering to any one niche base. So we can definitely get more accountable elected officials and a reduction of polarization by changing the way that we elect our officials.”

Cynthia Richie Terrell, founder and director of RepresentWomen, pointed to the recent Democratic gubernatorial race in Virginia, where state Sen. Jennifer McClellan and former state Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy — Black women who would have made history if either had won the nomination and were elected — ran alongside Terry McAuliffe, a former governor who is a White man.

Richie Terrell emphasized that it’s not clear if ranked-choice voting would have changed the outcome of the race given McAuliffe’s strong lead going into the primary. But she believes more civic engagement groups would have made multi-candidate endorsements that could have raised the profiles of McClellan, Carroll Foy and others in the race. McAuliffe, who had the backing of several Black lawmakers and leaders, also might have sought even more support from voters who backed McClellan and Carroll Foy to ensure he was their second choice.

“McAuliffe might have felt more pressure from needing to appeal to Black woman voters and be attentive to their needs and their concerns. Because in order to win a majority he would have had to have said, ‘I’m really prioritizing the concerns of Black women in my agenda for the economy, for transportation, for health care, for child care,’” she said.

In the contentious world of politics, a crowded race for elected office can sometimes mean trouble for lesser known candidates, who are often women and people of color. They must then contend with narratives about their electability, placing them into a cycle of low name recognition and fundraising.

Courtney Lamendola, research director at RepresentWomen, said ranked-choice voting gives room for candidates to focus on the issues instead of questions about their viability.

“I think particularly for women and people of color, or really anybody else who has previously been excluded from this political process, it’s a really exciting and hopeful kind of opportunity for them,” she said.

The use of ranked-choice voting in the United States is currently most expansive in local politics. At least 19 cities and counties have used ranked-choice voting in the last decade to determine their municipal elections. Preliminary research from RepresentWomen shows women and people of color candidates win in higher numbers under a ranked-choice voting system. The report noted that at the start of 2020, half of all mayors and nearly half of all city council members elected in cities with ranked-choice voting are women.

Additionally, at least seven cities with ranked-choice voting for their city council elections have reached gender parity or surpassed it.

This kind of system isn’t new. A version of multi-winner voting was in use beginning around the 1910s in America, an extension of similar systems in Europe and other parts of the world. In the 1930s, New York City adopted a proportional version of multi-winner choice voting and before the end of the decade elected its first woman to the City Council, Genevieve Beavers Earle.

As more women and people of color won elections under a version of ranked-choice voting, powerful politicians began opposing its use.

“The sad reality is that it was a victim of its own success to a certain extent, because it threatened the establishment by giving voters more power to elect candidates of choice,” Richie Terrell said.

But ranked-choice voting is coming around again, and it is continuing to grow on the state and federal level. Maine voters in 2016 approved ranked-choice voting for state and federal elections, and its state legislature expanded its use for presidential elections. Janet Mills, the first woman elected governor of Maine, won a seven-way primary under ranked-choice voting in 2018.

Alaska voters approved ranked-choice voting last year, and additional states are implementing its use for presidential primary elections or allowing its cities to implement it. Still, a ballot measure on ranked-choice voting failed in Massachusetts last November, which experts attributed to skepticism.

Overcoming any lingering confusion about ranked-choice voting is part of Lerner’s work at New York Common Cause. She is helping to lead a field team that is knocking on doors and other outreach efforts to share information about the system.

“I hope that the materials and the program that we’re running can be a helpful guide to other cities as they pick up ranked-choice voting,” she said. “We are not only the largest but the most diverse city to adopt ranked-choice voting, and I think that that will provide helpful information.”

Both Richie Terrell and Lamendola of RepresentWomen emphasized the importance of not putting too much pressure on what ranked-choice voting will deliver. While the data indicates it benefits women and people of color, every jurisdiction is different. There is no guarantee that someone from either group will win after the primary votes are counted in New York City. But the benefits of ranked-choice voting for making the system more democratic is important.

“This is one of the biggest cases where we are going to have a lot of new fresh data and fresh faces to kind of help tell us a little bit more about the story as it continues to emerge,” Lamendola said.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

From the Collection

The Electability Myth

Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
  • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

    Candice Norwood · June 21
  • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

    Mariel Padilla · May 24
  • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

    Barbara Rodriguez · January 11

Up Next

A photo of LaTosha Brown.

Race

Black Voters Matter is heading back to the battlefield

Black Voters Matter is leading a coalition of national civil rights and grassroots groups on the Freedom Ride for Voting Rights starting Saturday.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram