After an intense campaign marked by fiery debates and a wave of attack ads, New York City voters are casting their ballots today in a pivotal Democratic mayoral primary. With temperatures soaring and the race tightening in its final stretch, the outcome remains highly anticipated. But don’t expect the results anytime soon. It may take some time before a winner is announced in Tuesday’s mayoral primary. New York City uses a ranked-choice voting system. Instead of choosing a single contender, voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference. If their top choice doesn’t garner enough support, their vote can still count toward their next preferred candidates, which can delay final results but ensures a broader reflection of voter intent.With 11 candidates on the ballot, it’s unlikely that any one will secure over 50 percent of first-choice votes. If that happens, the ranked-choice voting system activates, starting by eliminating the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and redistributing those votes to the voters’ second-choice candidates, until there are two candidates left. From there, whoever has more votes is declared the winner.According to the city’s board of elections, New York City will begin counting ranked-choice ballots one week after the election. “Preliminary RCV elimination rounds will be conducted and reports released every week until the election is certified,” the board says in an explainer.Although the computerized vote tallying is quick, the process doesn’t begin immediately. Polls close at 9 pm, Tuesday, and preliminary results based on voters’ first-choice selections are expected within a few hours.However, the ranked-choice vote counting won’t commence until July 1, as the city must wait for all mail-in ballots to be received before starting the final tabulation.The race has become a tight two-man showdown between Andrew M. Cuomo, the scandal-tainted former governor, and Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist assemblyman with limited experience. Meanwhile, nine other candidates lag behind, and polls indicate the race is still too close to call.The July 1 count might show who’s leading, but it won’t be final. More ranked choice counting will happen as absentee ballots arrive, and the official results won’t be certified until July 15.In the 2021 primary, Eric Adams was declared the winner on July 6 after eight rounds of counting, two weeks after election day. That year, 13% of Democratic voters selected only one candidate, while most ranked two or more.
