Battenfeld: Ranked choice voting disaster in New York City shows why liberal elites were wrong

Massachusetts voters — with the notable exception of top Democratic leaders — should congratulate themselves again for wisely rejecting “ranked choice” voting that has turned New York City’s mayoral race into complete chaos.

The darling of the wealthy, liberal elite, ranked choice voting was used for the first time in New York’s primary and now it’s an unmitigated disaster, with mistakes plaguing the count and voters still in the dark about which candidate won a week after the contest.

Voters in the Bay State overwhelmingly gave the thumbs down to Question 2, the well-funded ranked choice voting referendum bid, in 2020 despite the fact that there was no organized opposition. The referendum question was backed by wealthy donors like Jonathan Soros, son of billionaire George Soros, and Kathryn Murdoch, daughter-in-law of Rupert Murdoch.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey are just some of the well-known Democrats to back the new, confusing system of voting where voters rank candidates from one to five and the candidates are gradually eliminated until a winner is declared.

“Ranked Choice Voting will make our democracy stronger and give voters more power,” Markey tweeted last year.

The problem in New York is that the city’s dysfunctional Board of Elections — run by both Democrats and Republicans — was in charge, and mistakenly tabulated 135,000 “test” votes into the real vote, skewing the results.

The elections board first released new totals on the mayor’s race on Monday showing that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams’ lead had significantly narrowed, but later pulled those totals, saying there was a “discrepancy.”

Some discrepancy.

New York City voters still have no idea who won, except that Adams and former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, who initially finished third, were the final two candidates left. Adams, a moderate who ran against the defund the police movement, also easily won the battle of first choice votes.

But these results still haven’t even included tens of thousands of absentee ballots that could tip the race.

Voters can now expect a winner to be declared sometime later in July.

That’s right, weeks from now.

Voters deserve better than this and Massachusetts voters should be congratulated for turning out in droves to reject this confusing mess of an election.

The good news is that because of New York City’s screw up, ranked choice voting may now be a pariah, destined to be yet another bad idea backed by liberals.

By the way, Boston’s preliminary mayoral election is in September and the two candidates receiving the most votes will face off against each other in November.

Pretty simple, right? Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll know who the next mayor will be before 2022.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2UiwNGc