Voter’s Guide 101: Let’s talk Primary Election logistics
Author’s note: I’m doing a series of posts ahead of the June 24th Primaries in New York City about voting logistics, why the Primary Election is set-up the way it is, and Abundance endorsements. This first post answers some basic questions I had about how to find out if I’m registered, and when and where to vote.
Check out the rest of this Q&A below:
How do I know if I’m registered to vote in the Primaries?
New York City has closed primaries, which means you need to be a registered Democrat to vote in the Democratic Primary election. To confirm that you can vote in the Primaries, head to https://amiregistered.vote.nyc/Home/VoterSearch and search for yourself. If you have “Status: Active” and “Party: DEM”, you should be eligible to vote.
Where will I vote?
You can click the “Poll Site Information” button in the upper right-hand corner of your Voter Search results to see your polling location.
Personally, I have different sites for early voting, which starts on June 14th, and the day of the primaries on June 24th. I’ve already blocked off time to go vote early at McCarren Park’s polling site.
Can I vote by mail?
Yes! Apparently starting last year, you can request a mail ballot for any New York election. For registered voters, the online deadline for a mail ballot for this Primary election is Saturday, June 14th. You can learn more here.
What will my ballot look like?
On the Poll Site Information, there is also a button at the top you can click to see your Sample Ballot. In addition to a PDF of the actual ballot, the Sample Ballot page also directly lists out the candidates and races, which vary by location.
For example, I get to vote on the following six races:
Mayor
Public Advocate
Comptroller
Judge of the Civil Court - Kings County
Brooklyn Borough President
City Council - 33rd District
I don’t know much about the Judge of the Civil Court or Borough President races, so I’ll research those before voting.
How does Rank Choice Voting (RCV) work?
New York City uses RCV for not just Mayor, but also Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council Primary elections. So for these races, you get to rank up to five candidates from 1 (most preferred) to 5.
It is an algorithm with the following steps:
If a candidate has more than 50% of the first place votes, they win
If no candidate has more than 50% of the first place votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate now have their vote shifted to their next choice.
(the process repeats in rounds until a winner is selected)
You can read more about RCV from the Board of Elections website. Crucially, if you do not want your vote going to a candidate, do not rank them -- hence a lot of the online chatter about not ranking former Governor Cuomo 🙂
When will we know who won the Mayoral Primary?
The Board of Elections says they will release unofficial results of first-choice votes at the close of polls on election day. They also state that an unofficial report on RCV elimination rounds and results will be released a week after the elections.
The final results may take longer depending on how long it takes to count all mail and affidavit ballots and how close the election is.
For context, the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary election took place on June 22, 2021. Eric Adams was declared the winner on July 6, 2021, approximately two weeks after the election day. Kathryn Garcia conceded on July 7, 2021.