Ranked choice voting is one step closer to being implemented in City of Albany elections.
Advocates with the organization Ranked Choice Voting Albany said they've gathered 1,975 signatures in support of ranked choice voting in city elections during a second round of canvassing this fall.
RCV Albany submitted the petitions to the Albany City Clerk's Office on Thursday. If the Clerk's Office determines that at least 1,200 of the newly submitted signatures are valid, voters could see a referendum on ranked choice voting as soon as the 2027 general election.
"Why are the voters of Albany so interested in this proposal? I personally talked to hundreds of registered voters, and I can tell you that they like it," RCV Albany Co-chair Charlotte Collet said at a press conference Thursday. "They like that it is more fair, more inclusive, cheaper and simpler. They like that it would give every registered voter in our city a meaningful voice, regardless of their party affiliation."
If it moves forward, the referendum would ask voters whether they want to eliminate party primaries and choose elected officials in a single election in November where the winner would be decided by ranked choice voting. The changes would only apply to municipal elections in the City of Albany for positions like mayor and Common Council member. If approved by the voters, the system could go into effect by the next round of city elections in 2029.
RCV Albany members gathered the second round of signatures after the Albany Common Council never took action on their original petition with 2,624 valid signatures. The group believes it's the first time a citizen ballot initiative bypassed the council with a second round of signatures.
"This is an example of democracy in action and real civic engagement, and it shows that the citizens of Albany want to be involved, want to reform their government and want to make sure that all voters, including the unaffiliated voters, have a say," Former Common Councilmember and ranked choice voting advocate Richard Conti said in a press conference Thursday.
The ballot measure would also have to be cleared by the New York State Attorney General's Office under the New York Voting Rights Act.
The elimination of party primaries has faced opposition from the Democratic and Working Families parties in Albany County. They’ve argued that the proposal would disempower primary voters and confuse general election voters who would see multiple candidates with the same party affiliations. Under RCV Albany’s proposal, candidates would appear with their party registration and the names of any other political parties that agree to endorse them.
“Political parties and their members would no longer play a role in selecting the candidates that run on their party’s line, and a lot of research has shown that one of the most important ways that information gets signaled to voting members of the public about candidates is what party has nominated them,” Capital District Working Families Party Chair Andy Kaier said in an interview over the summer.
Kaier said he’d personally like to prioritize reforms to the city’s campaign finance structure, although he noted many WFP members support a simple ranked-choice voting system.
Councilmember Jack Flynn submitted an alternate proposal that would implement ranked choice voting in primary and general elections for city-level races, like those for mayor or councilmember. Flynn said he’s open to alternate ranked choice voting proposals but introduced the legislation to get "different perspectives” on electoral reform. The proposal is still in the Common Council's Law, Buildings and Code Enforcement Committee, according to council agendas.
What is ranked-choice voting?
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.
If voters approved a version of ranked choice voting via referendum, Albany would be the third municipality in New York state to adopt the electoral system. 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 U.S. cities — including San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis — already use some form of ranked choice voting.
