Voters in New York City have already begun to cast their ballots, where the upcoming Democratic Party primary has attracted national attention.
Following nine days of early voting that ended on Sunday, polls will open on Tuesday.
The Democratic Party’s leadership in the race, which includes former governor Andrew Cuomo’s son, a former mayor with established experience, and young Democratic socialist state assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has promised to address cost-of-living issues, has sparked a debate over the party’s future in New York and beyond.
The Democratic primary winner is regarded as the clear favorite to win the city’s November general election, with the incumbent mayor firmly leaning toward the left and the Republican candidate a long shot at winning.
Democratic incumbent mayor Eric Adams announced earlier this year that he would withdraw from the primary.
The city’s ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank several candidates based on their preference rather than voting for just one candidate, has also been highlighted by the race.
What are the status of the race as voters turn out for the polls, and what are the ranked choice voting’s advantages and disadvantages? We examine that and more in detail.
When is the last day to vote?
On June 24, the New York City Democratic mayoral primary will be held with voting open from 6am to 9pm. Between June 14 and June 22, early voting took place.
The candidates are who?
Cuomo and Mamdani are in a battle to take the top spot in the country’s largest city, while others are running for the top spot as well.
After a report revealed that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women while serving as governor, Cuomo, a 67-year-old centrist former governor from a political dynasty in New York, launched an effort to resurrect. He eventually succumbed to this demand in 2021.
At a time when the federal government is under greater scrutiny from the administration of US President Donald Trump over issues like immigration enforcement, the former governor has positioned himself as the most experienced figure capable of leading the city.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic socialist and state legislator with an immigrant background, has started a campaign with low success rates but has risen steadily as the young lawmaker makes an unflinchingly progressive pitch to voters. He has pledged to reform the political structure of the city and pass laws imposing a freeze on rent increases and free public transportation.
Cuomo and Mamdani are among the candidates running, despite the country’s attention currently favoring them.
They include New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, New York City Council member Adrienne Adams, New York City Council member Whitney Tilson, investor Michael Blake, political consultant, and former state senator Zellnor Myrie.
What makes this race so notable?
The race for mayor has been filled with drama, fitting New York’s reputation as one of the best cities in the world.
A stark contrast between competing visions for the city’s future has been drawn between Cuomo’s attempt to retake office after a previous governor’s attempt to do so in addition to Mamdani’s young, vibrant campaign with strong appeals to the city’s pluralistic identity.
Centrist figures like former president Bill Clinton have supported Cuomo, while progressive figures like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have endorsed Mamdani.
The Middle East conflict has also had a significant impact on the race. Cuomo, a fervent supporter of Israel, has pledged to combat anti-Semitism. Mahmudani, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, has mentioned receiving anti-Muslim death threats during the campaign.
The Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward immigration enforcement has also been a turning point. When federal immigration agents temporarily detained Lander, the city’s comptroller, while he was escorting a man outside of immigration court, city officials and candidates reacted with fury last week.
What can we infer from the most recent polls?
Recent polls indicate that Mamdani and Cuomo are in a close fight.
In an Emerson poll conducted on Monday, Cuomo received 35 percent of the vote, Mamdani received 33 percent, Lander received 13 percent, and Adrienne Adams received 8 percent.
In a prior Emerson poll in late May, Cuomo received 34 percent, Mamdani received 22 percent, Lander received 10 percent, and Adrienne Adams received 8 percent.
In the final round, Cuomo defeats Mamdani by 45 percent, according to a Marist poll from June, while Emerson poll shows Mamdani with 52 percent, Cuomo with 48 percent, and Mamdani with 45 percent.
When will the outcomes be available?
Polls close at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday (GMT, Wednesday), and some preliminary results should be made soon. Due to the city’s ranked-choice voting system, the final result will take longer to be tabulated.
Since the city is awaiting all mail-in ballots until July 1, ranked choice tabulation will not begin. On July 15, the official results will be released, but they may already be known.
How does ranked choice voting work?
People rank several candidates based on their preferences in ranked choice voting rather than just picking a single candidate.
Supporters claim that this is more complicated than a traditional election because it allows voters to express their preferences without casting an all-or-nothing vote.
Voters in New York order as many as five candidates according to their favorability. Only the first choices are counted during the first round of voting. A candidate’s overwhelming majority of more than 50% of the vote determines their candidacy.
If not, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and the second-choice pick is chosen based on the votes cast by the voters who placed them first.
The process continues until there are only two candidates left, with the winner based on the number of votes cast.
What are its advantages?
Those who support ranked choice voting claim that it gives people the freedom to cast their ballots in favor of the candidate they like the best without worrying about their chances of winning.
You could place Lander first and Mamdani second if you like Mamdani and think he has the best chance of winning, for example.
People can choose to support the candidate they most strongly with the exception of when the other candidates you ranked lose out on the race’s outcome.
Some argue that a candidate’s ranked choice makes it difficult to win if they don’t have a lot of broad support, since candidates gain if they perform well with both their own core supporters and those of several other candidates as well.
What are its shortcomings?
The complexity of the system is one of its drawbacks. Even those who have previously cast ballots using ranked choice voting can be confused about the implications of their rankings, despite the obvious simplicity of the idea of choosing a group of candidates based on preference.
Some people also think that the voting process is less transparent because a computer is assigned the task of tabulating and redistributing votes in each round, making it harder for traditional news organizations to follow developments.
Source: Aljazeera
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