Maya Wiley, a Democratic candidate in the mayoral primary, holds a news conference in front of City Hall, Thursday, July 1, 2021 in New York. Revised vote counts in New York City’s mayoral primary show Democrat Eric Adams has maintained a thin lead. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Polls closed more than a week ago for the New York City mayoral race, but the use of ranked choice voting (RCV), an election system that permits voters to choose multiple candidates and rank them in order of preference, is causing a lag in election results.
According to reports Tuesday, the New York City Board of Elections caused chaos in the Democrat mayoral primary by accidentally counting roughly 135,000 test ballots in the initial tally release. This move has put the board’s competency into question.
The board admitted its error in a statement Wednesday that said “yesterday’s ranked choice voting reporting error was unacceptable.” It then cited a “human error” as the problem, not the RCV technology.
The revised results put retired police officer and Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams in the lead with Katheryn Garcia closely behind him in the Democrat primary.
Political science Professor Christina Greer said RCV gives voters the opportunity to not think as strategically for their one vote and gives more opportunity to women as well as people of color.
New York City’s Board of Elections has an erroneous history and Kathryn Garcia told sources that mayoral candidates are pushing for reforms.
— Kathryn Garcia (@KGforNYC) June 30, 2021
The Board of Elections’ error comes as Americans question election integrity and some states have introduced new voting legislation. The final results of the city’s Democrat mayoral primary are expected by the week of July 12.
Source: One America News Network
