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Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC in Gothamist newsroom, filling in for Brian who's off today. In less than six weeks, voters across the city will cast ballots to select candidates for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, city council, and more. The primary election is set for June 22nd with early voting running for nine days ahead of the election starting on June 12th, but the truth is, voting is already underway.

The New York City Board of Elections has already mailed out more than 70,000 absentee ballots with more going out each week. That means some people are voting now, and for the first time in a city-wide race, voters will be using a new system called ranked-choice voting. It's used in several cities across the country and the state of Maine, but this is a big change for city voters.

Joining me now to talk about what the city is doing to help get people ready for it is the city's Chief Democracy Officer, Laura Wood. Laura, welcome to WNYC.

Laura Wood: Thank you so much for having me, Brigid, and thank you to you and the entire WNYC team for your great reporting on the local elections.

Brigid Bergin: You're very welcome. Laura, some listeners may hear your title and say, "Chief Democracy Officer, what the heck is that?" On their behalf, what the heck is that?

Laura Wood: Brigid, it is an interesting title, but the job is actually pretty simple. My job is to make sure that as many New Yorkers as possible know about the upcoming elections, make their plan to register if they need to do so, and make a plan to go out and vote. I'm thrilled to have a wonderful team at Democracy NYC and across the city helping us get the job done. With New Yorkers facing-- Sorry, go ahead.

Brigid Bergin: When it comes to who really administers democracy in New York City, we think about the New York City Board of Elections, who actually run the elections. Then we have the New York City Campaign Finance Board, which oversees campaign spending and runs the public funds matching program and debates-- Reminder, Thursday night from 7:00 to 9:00, first mayoral debate here on WNYC with Brian as a moderator. The CFP also does voter education and outreach. Where does your office fit in with that?

Laura Wood: We are very happy to work very closely with both of those agencies, particularly the Campaign Finance Board and their NYC votes arm. We are working with them every single day to make sure that in this final stretch before the primary, all New York City voices have their chance to be heard at the ballot box.

This new commitment from the mayor of this investment in a ranked-choice voting campaign will allow us to work with those partners as well as partners outside of government to meet voters where they are in the languages they speak and ensure that they can make a plan to vote this June.

Brigid Bergin: Let's talk about that investment. The mayor recently announced the city was going to spend $15 million to make sure voters are ready for these new ranked-choice voting ballots. That's a lot of money. What will it pay for and how will voters experience it?

Laura Wood: The primary thing that we are going to do over the next six weeks, and I'm glad you pointed out that voting is actually already underway with the primary day six weeks from now. We are going to be engaging in a robust TV, radio, and print advertising campaign with a significant investment in community and ethnic media. More than half of our media will be in languages other than English.

A broad out-of-home campaign, which will include subways, bus shelters, fairies, we'll be advertising on digital media, and we're working on a series of multi-lingual workshops. We have over a dozen events just in the upcoming week alone. We have an interactive online app similar to that great tool you shared last week with the New York Public Library, which actually mimics the New York City ballot and helps New Yorkers practice and understand how ranked-choice voting works. That is available in 16 languages on our website, which is nyc.gov/democracy NYC.

In addition, we are going to be investing several million in translation of key voter education resources into up to 19 languages. This will include both online information as well as print information. It will include an FAQ document that the CFP has already created, public service announcements, a palm card, specifically about ranked-choice voting and that will be available both online and in print. The TV and radio ads will be translated in as many as 10 languages.

We know that ranked-choice voting is not that hard to understand, but people need to know about it. They need to know that the elections are coming up in just six weeks so that they can make their plan to vote. That's what this campaign is all about.

Brigid Bergin: Laura, can you give the website address again where voters can besides going to gothamist.com where you can do our sample ranked-choice ballot, which teaches you the principles of ranked-choice voting. The website that you are describing is it more of a reflection of the actual ballot, or again, is it more trying to teach people the principles of ranked-choice voting?

Laura Wood: It's a little bit of both, Brigid. Obviously, when we vote, we're going to be doing so on paper. This is online, but it was designed specifically to mimic as closely as possible what the ballot format will look like. As I said, we actually worked with community-based organizations and others to come up with culturally competent topics for voting. When you go there you'll see a ballot for Korean food. You'll see local restaurants from a particular part of Brooklyn.

We have a ballot that features New York City landmarks, and all of those are available, again, at nyc.gov/democracynyc. If there are listeners out there who want to create new ballots, we can actually work with you to do that. If you have a particular language and a particular topic that you'd like to create an RCV ballot around, that is something that we would be thrilled to do with you.

Brigid Bergin: That's so interesting. You're seeking community partners to help get this information out to the community.

Laura Wood: Absolutely.

Brigid Bergin: You're listening to The Brian Lehrer Show in WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC in Gothamist newsroom, and I'm speaking with the city's Chief Democracy Officer, Laura Wood. A reminder to listeners, ranked-choice voting will allow you to pick up to five candidates in order of preference. You don't have to pick all five. You could just pick one, but let's talk about some of the finer points, Laura.

You cannot pick more than one candidate for a certain rank. That is, you can only have one number one and one number two and so forth. What happens if you don't do that?

Laura Wood: You mean if you only choose one candidate or--?

Brigid Bergin: If I have two candidates who I love so much, I make them both number one.

Laura Wood: Unfortunately, that, as you said, is not permitted. Your ballot will be rejected, and if you're voting in person, you'll be offered a new ballot. Ranking is something that New Yorkers do all the time. If you go to the grocery store and you intend to buy chocolate ice cream, because that's your favorite, but they don't have it and so you pick mint chip, because that's the second favorite, that's a perfect example of what this exercise is.

We encourage all voters to look at the candidates in advance, think about what order you actually prefer them in, and make your ranking before you head to the ballot box so that you can make your voice heard.

You can vote for only one, that is still an option for people who want to do that. That is okay. The point of ranked-choice voting is that if your first choice doesn't win, you still have a say in who does.

Brigid Bergin: Now, if you do decide you really just love a certain candidate and you want to just vote for that candidate, is there any advantage to voting for that candidate as your one, two, three, four, and five? Why would that not be a good idea?

Laura Wood: That's basically the equivalent of just voting for them as your first choice. It doesn't give them anything. It basically just means, again, that if you only choose one candidate and that candidate doesn't win, then your vote is done.

Again, this is up to individual voters who have to think about it and make a decision, but if there is a candidate who might not be your first choice who you prefer over some of the others, then I would encourage New Yorkers to think about putting that candidate second so that if your first choice doesn't win, you still have a say in the process.

Brigid Bergin: Laura, your office has also been very involved with trying to increase translation services at poll sites. What should voters expect this time around?

Laura Wood: Yes. We and our close partners at the New York City Civic Engagement Commission have been working on this for several years as well as, of course, with the mayor's office of immigrant affairs. As they did last year, the Civic Engagement Commission will be providing interpretation services during both early voting and on June 22nd, primary day itself.

They are working on that right now and will publish the final poll site list as soon as it's finalized, probably sometime early next month. Remember, all voters are entitled to bring people to assist them when they go to vote. You're also allowed to bring written materials with you.

Brigid Bergin: Really important points.

Laura Wood: Even if a particular poll site doesn't have an interpreter who speaks that voter's language, they can bring whoever they want, as long as it's not their boss or their union leader. You can also, of course, ask poll workers for help. I'm really happy that all poll workers are being trained in ranked-choice voting and should be able to offer assistance onsite.

Brigid Bergin: Laura, just really quickly, what resources are available for voters who want to learn more? It sounds like you're going to be blanketing our airwaves. You should not be able to go outside and pass a bus shelter without knowing about ranked-choice voting, but if you want to do some quick immersion, is the best place to go that website you told us, or is there anywhere else you would direct people? Really quickly.

Laura Wood: We're so thrilled to have so many partners. Our website is a great resource. I also want to plug the CFP's website, voting.nyc, which has a lot great information as well. The BOE has put some ranked-choice voting information up, and hopefully, all voters received their mailer from them recently with some information. The Campaign Finance Board, of course, will be sending out their voter guide in the next few weeks, which will include information on the actual candidates.

Then Rank the Vote is another organization that has a lot of resources. One last one I want to mention is Citizens Union recently launched a website, electnyc.org, which also has a lot of candidates' specific information on it.

Like you said, hopefully, you won't be able to walk past a bus shelter or turn on a TV without hearing about ranked-choice voting in the next six weeks, but for voters who want more information, there is a lot available.

Brigid Bergin: That's great. We'll be looking out for all of that. I've been speaking with the city's Chief Democracy Officer, Laura Wood. Next, an update from the campaign trail with WNYC's Gwynne Hogan. Stay tuned.

 

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