For the first time in the US New York, the ranking system will be used for the mayoral election. In this, the voters will not be required to choose any one candidate. Voters will be able to place five candidates in the order of their preference based on their preference. This ranking system will prove decisive in the selection of the final candidate. It may also happen that the voters reject all the candidates. Experts are calling this system cumbersome.
If no candidate receives a majority of the first preference votes, the decision will be by immediate runoff. Runoff means that the candidate with the lowest first ranking will be eliminated. Their votes will be included in the ranking of the second choice of the voters concerned. This process will continue until one candidate secures the maximum of the remaining votes.
Experts say the system is complicated. It forces the voters to take more decisions. As a result, many voters will not rank as many candidates. This left the fear that the results could have been different had voters ranked the top five candidates. The ranking system is in place in several cities across eight US states.
Experts say that even 1% of votes lost due to ranking can be decisive. One such case is the 2018 San Francisco mayoral election. Candidate London Breed won by 1% of the vote, while 9% of voters did not rankle for Breed or second-place candidate Mark Leno.