Choosing a mayor in a new way: what is rating voting and how to learn how to use it for Russian-speaking voters

The mayor and local officials of New York will now be elected by a rating vote. To make the transition to the new style of elections as smooth as possible for the townspeople, public organizations have created a special simulator on which it will be possible to try, and most importantly, to understand how this system works. Now it is available in Russian as well.

Starting in 2021, a new voting style - rating - will be introduced in local elections in New York. This means that voters will not only be able to vote for one candidate, but also rank up to 5 candidates in order of preference. So, in the newsletter, you can mark the one who is in the first place for you - and then, in descending order, choose four more applicants for the post. If you don't like no one other than the first one, if you wish, you can still vote for only one candidate.

A special online simulator has been created to help voters

New York City will now elect its mayor, public attorney and controller, and hold city council elections through rating voting. The first vote in this style will take place on June 22.

A rating vote is essentially voting in rounds: if one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in the first round, then he or she wins, and that is the end of the race. If no one gets more than 50% of the votes at once, the last-placed candidate is expelled, and everyone else moves on to the next round. All votes for the excluded candidate will be redistributed to the candidate who took second place - and so on until there is only one left.

On the subject: Benefits of an accent and support for immigrants: how a Russian plans to win the mayoral elections in New York

It is not so easy to understand how the system works the first time, so public organizations have developed a kind of simulator - a web tool on which people can understand the voting process before elections. The simulator was translated into 16 languages, including into Russian.

“We did this to make it as accessible as possible to voters,” says the policy and strategic planning advisor. DemocracyNYC Eva Grassfield, - while working with an organization that helped us adapt this for Russian-speaking users. We wanted, for example, to be able to choose “5 favorite Russian dishes” or “5 favorite places in New York”. We unequivocally believe that it is necessary to translate such simulators, and the more languages ​​we cover, the better. As of today, the program has already been translated into 16 languages, and now we intend to add two more languages. Because it is much better if people have the opportunity to study in the language in which they are comfortable ”.

Tinatin Japaridze, director of policy and strategy at The Critical Mass, helped to adapt the platform for training voting into Russian. She supports the idea that it is extremely important for immigrants to receive information in their own language. “After all, America is a country of immigrants, which was created by immigrants, so it is important that we do not lose our identity in the post-immigration space. It is important to remain Georgians, Russians, Ukrainians, but at the same time be Americans. ”

According to Tinatin, the Russian-speaking community is not very active in elections, and one of the goals of public organizations is to restore people's trust in democratic instruments. “We still have a post-Soviet attitude -“ why, no one will count our vote, ”or“ plus or minus one vote, what's the difference. ” But America shows that every vote has great power and meaning, so I always try to explain to our people that it is very important to go to the polls, because by participating in local elections, citizens help to preserve democratic principles and ensure that our voices are heard and we we ourselves can determine the future fate of our communities ”.

Anyone who wants to learn how to vote in a new way can go at this link and practice.

According to proponents of the new method, ranked voting allows people to more fully express their preferences and feel like they are wasting their vote.