Electoral reform is one step closer to reality in the city of Albany.
Ranked Choice Voting Albany (RCV Albany) advocates submitted a petition Wednesday at City Hall, calling for a referendum to implement ranked-choice voting in city elections to be on this November’s ballot. More than 3,200 city residents signed the petition, RCV Albany organizers said, about 800 more than they needed to be heard by the Albany Common Council.
RCV Albany’s proposal would implement a ranked-choice voting system in Albany elections, allowing voters to rank their top five candidates for positions like mayor and councilmember. It would also eliminate party primaries for those races, leaving candidates — regardless of party affiliation — to duke it out in the November general election.
“Every voter would have the opportunity to help choose their leaders, and candidates would need to earn broad support from across the community,” RCV Albany co-chair Charlotte Collet said at a press conference Wednesday. “This proposal is about giving voters more choices, encouraging more positive campaigns, and ensuring that our elections better reflect the people of Albany.”
In a ranked-choice voting system, voters rank their top five candidates from most preferred to least preferred. If no candidate wins 50% of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the least first-choice votes is eliminated, and that candidate’s votes are then distributed to the candidates that voters listed as their second choices. That process repeats until a candidate wins 50% of the ballots cast.
Members of RCV Albany said their proposed system would give registered independents an equal say in the process, elect candidates with broader appeal, and allow voters to support their preferred candidate without “throwing away” their vote on someone likely to lose. They also argue that eliminating primaries would simplify the voting process and reduce election costs.
“Right now, party primaries function as de facto elections in Albany, shutting out thousands of unaffiliated and cross-party voters,” said Richard Conti, a former Albany Common Councilmember and ranked-choice voting supporter, on Wednesday. “A single, uniform, nonpartisan election with ranked-choice voting is more inclusive, gives every voter an equal voice, and ensures majority winners without costly runoffs.”
The Albany County Democratic Committee and the Working Families Party are opposing the measure, the Times Union reported last week. The parties have argued that the proposal is “antidemocratic” and disempowers primary voters. Albany County Democratic Chair Jake Crawford told the paper that voters can already support independent candidates and become registered Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary.
Neither party responded to requests from WAMC for comment.
The Albany Common Council will have to approve the referendum before it can go on the ballot this fall.
Ninth Ward Councilmember Meghan Keegan said the council — fresh off an involved budget process — hasn’t had much time to discuss the proposal. She added that she wasn’t opposed to ranking candidates or finding ways to cut operational costs on local elections, but she thought eliminating party primaries altogether would undermine primary voters and make the general election more confusing. Under RCV Albany’s proposed system, candidates’ names would appear on the ballot with their registered party as well as any parties with which they make an agreement.
“It’s important for voters to understand the identity of candidates and how we are aligned on a variety of different issues, and I think that that is clearly spelled out in terms of how you vote for a particular candidate on a particular party line,” Keegan said. “I think Democratic voters who are registered Democrats should be able to select the candidate that they want to push through into the general election.”
A spokesperson for Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs did not respond to a request for comment.
Dorian Solot, another co-chair of RCV Albany, is asking members of the Common Council to put any concerns aside and let voters decide how they should vote.
“This is an issue of how we vote,” Solot said. “So, I’m optimistic that the Common Council will step aside, give it the ‘yes’ votes it needs, so the voters ultimately are the ones that decide yes or no.”
If the Common Council vetoed the ballot initiative, RCV Albany could still force a referendum by gathering an additional 1,200 signatures.
If the referendum passed, Albany would be the third municipality in New York State to adopt ranked-choice voting. The town of Newburgh in Orange County adopted a version of ranked-choice voting earlier this year, and New York City has used ranked-choice voting in primaries and special elections for city positions since the 2021 cycle.
Other cities — including San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis — already use a system like the one proposed by RCV Albany.
