USA Today: Eric Adams sees lead in New York City mayoral election narrow after first ranked choice voting tally

NEW YORK — Brooklyn borough president and former police captain Eric Adams had his lead narrow Tuesday in the New York City mayor’s race after the first calculation of ranked choice votes was released.

The partial results show Adams narrowly edging out Kathryn Garcia in the last of 11 elimination rounds in the ranked choice voting system, but a complete and certified vote tally has yet to be released with tens of thousands of mail-in votes to be counted.

Ranked choice voting, new to New York’s mayoral primary this election, allows voters to select up to five candidates. Votes are redistributed in an elimination process if no candidate commands a majority of first choice votes. …

The system has been used in other cities, such as Oakland, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Advocates say ranked voting better captures voters’ preferences and can be less costly than runoff elections.

Without ranked choice, the city would likely be awaiting a runoff election that could cost millions, said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/New York.

Exit polling from Lerner’s group also found that voters took advantage of the new system. More than 80% of voters ranked at least two candidates in the mayoral primary, and more than 40% ranked five candidates.

Lerner also stressed the delay in results is not because of ranked voting but rather state laws protecting voters’ rights around when absentee ballots can be counted and “curing” ballot defects.

“Democracy takes time, and it’s important that every vote counts. Accurate results are worth waiting for,” she said.