Voters in New York City may be waiting at least a couple weeks to find out who the Democratic nominee for city comptroller is—along with nominees for other offices on the ballot, including mayor and city council.
The city Board of Elections is scheduled to begin running ranked-choice voting tabulations on June 29—the day it must receive absentee ballots by—for votes cast in person and will include votes cast by mail in the tabulations starting July 6, according to the Associated Press. Voters have until July 9 to resolve any issues that may be present with their absentee ballots, NY1 reported.
City Councilman Brad Lander had received 31% of the votes the board had counted and reported as of June 23. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson received 23%. Former CNBC financial analyst Michelle Caruso-Cabrera was third, based on these incomplete results, with 14%. State Sen. Brian Benjamin was fourth with 8%.
Lander ran as a progressive, emphasizing endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), along with The New York Times editorial board. Johnson said he’d balanced three city budgets as council speaker. Several unions in the city endorsed him. Caruso-Cabrera described herself as a Latina political outsider with the financial experience for the job. She ran against Ocasio-Cortez in the 2020 Democratic primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District. Benjamin highlighted his experience working for a housing developer and in financial management before joining the state legislature. Two former city comptrollers endorsed him.
With ranked-choice voting, the lowest-performing candidate of the 10 who ran will be eliminated from the running once all votes are in, and his or her votes will be redistributed to those voters’ second-choice candidates, if they selected second choices. That process will continue until one candidate reaches more than 50%. Voters were allowed to rank up to five candidates in the June 22 primaries.
Additional reading