For the first time this year, you can rank up to FIVE candidates for Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council.

Even if your #1 choice candidate does not win, you can still help choose who does.

• Who do you love? That’s your #1.
• Who do you like? That’s your #2. 
• Who are the candidates you’re OK with? Rank them #3, 4, and 5. 
• Make sure to fill in the correct bubbles on your ballot.

Ranking your vote allows you to care less about “electability” — you can rank your favorite candidate #1 even if you think they don’t have a chance to win, without the feeling that you are wasting your vote. Because, if you’re right and your #1 candidate drops off the rankings, your vote for #2 will get counted, and so on down the line. (Of course if more people feel the way you do, maybe we can stop caring about “electability” and just elect the people we want by voting for them!)

On your ballot, you’ll see candidates listed in rows, and ranked choices 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 listed as columns with bubbles to fill in for each.

Fill in the #1 bubble on the row with your first choice candidate. Fill in the #2 bubble on the row for your next choice, and so on.

You can practice on a sample online ballot here.

Since it’s so new, the idea of ranked choice may seem intimidating, but the way it works is actually very simple.

• All 1st choice votes are counted. If a candidate receives more than 50% of votes, they win.
• However, if no candidate earns more than 50% of 1st choice votes, then counting will continue in rounds.
• Each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. If your highest-ranked candidate is eliminated, your vote goes to the next highest ranked candidate on your ballot.
• This process continues until there are only 2 candidates left. The candidate with the most votes at that point wins.

Watch how sample ballots are counted until there is a winner.

One more thing: this isn’t like co-op board elections, where there is sometimes an advantage to “bullet voting” for only one candidate even though you are allowed to vote for more. In the co-ops, board election votes are equal and cumulative, so your votes for candidates you only like a little bit may help knock out the candidate you most want to see on the board.

With NYC ranked choice, that’s not the case. Your second choice vote will be counted only if your first choice has been eliminated. So just vote for whom you want, don’t try to game the system.

Award-winning author and GSD neighbor Joan Silber joins us to discuss her new book, Secrets of Happiness.

Early voting will be available June 12 – June 20 at JHS 56 on Madison Street.

Enter through the Madison Street playground between Clinton and Montgomery Streets.

Accessible entrance on Montgomery Street through the doors for NYC Center for Aerospace.

Day	Date	Hours
Saturday	June 12	8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday	June 13	8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Monday	June 14	7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Tuesday	June 15	10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Wednesday	June 16	10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Thursday	June 17	10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Friday	June 18	7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Saturday	June 19	8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday	June 20	8:00 am – 4:00 pm

Election day is Tuesday, June 22. Regular polling sites will be open that day 6:00 am – 9:00 pm.

In a new vote on Monday evening, Grand Street Dems members endorsed Kathryn Garcia for Mayor.

GSD members’ close second choice for Mayor is Dianne Morales.

Members spoke in favor of Garcia’s highly-regarded managerial experience within city government. Especially given the scale of economic recovery New York faces in the next several years, and the opportunities for challenging reforms within city agencies, her no-nonsense, goal-oriented approach to problem-solving would be a huge asset for all New Yorkers.

At the same time, many GSD members who are looking for transformational change in the way we talk about race, housing, equity, and policing were drawn to Dianne Morales, who is running as perhaps the most purely progressive candidate in the race. As our own ranked choice voting process peeled off the outliers, Morales came in a close second to Garcia.

This new endorsement meeting was called by the GSD Executive Committee ten days ago so that members could reconsider our previous endorsement of Scott Stringer given the sexual misconduct allegations recently made against him. The new vote was a full do-over among all 13 candidates who will be on the Democratic primary ballot on June 22, including Stringer.

To help our neighbors navigate the ranked choice ballot we will all use for the primary this year for the first time, the Executive Committee also voted prior to last night’s endorsement vote to release the club’s first and second choices for Mayor, as opposed to the single endorsements GSD has made public previously.

In response to sexual abuse allegations made against Scott Stringer this week, the GSD Executive Committee has voted to hold a membership meeting on Monday, May 10 to reconsider the club’s Mayoral endorsement.

All GSD members are invited to attend, and all members with voting privileges will be able to vote to endorse one of the candidates on the primary ballot for NYC Mayor.

Monday, May 10, 2021
7:00 pm
Members will receive Zoom link by email

In the meantime, there are a few Mayoral forums coming up over the next week that you might want to attend to brush up on the state of the race:

• Multifaith Justice Mayoral Forum — Sunday, May 2, 3:00 – 4:30 pm
  The leading six candidates for Mayor are hosted by a broad coalition of faith-based groups, including Collegiate Middle Church and East End Temple. Register for the event.

• Downtown Women for Change — Monday, May 3, 4:00 – 5:00 pm
  Meet the women running for Mayor — Kathryn Garcia, Dianne Morales and Maya Wiley — to hear how they plan to address the many challenges facing New York. Register for the event.

• NYIC Forum on Immigration — Thursday, May 6, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
  New York Immigration Coalition hosts a forum moderated by reporters from The City and Gotham Gazette. Register for the event.

We were so happy to be able to speak with author Ian Rosenberg about his new book The Fight for Free Speech. Ian’s book connects ten essential Supreme Court cases about the First Amendment to contemporary questions and issues in the news right now. It’s a timely and relatable guide to learning what your free speech rights are and how to use them.

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At our meeting on February 23, Grand Street Dems voted to endorse Christopher Chin and Edward Irizarry for the two open seats on the New York Civil Court, Judicial District 2.

We are heading into the biggest primary season NYC has seen in a generation and we are ready to help our endorsed candidates get on the ballot!

Grand Street Dems will be setting up tables on Grand Street for each of the first three weekends in March with petitions that candidates are required to file in order to qualify for the ballot in June.

(Yes, it’s crazy that candidates are still required to do this during a pandemic, but the Governor and State representatives somehow did not plan ahead to find a safer way to qualify for this year’s primary.)

If you feel comfortable, we need your help. Join us Saturdays and Sundays starting March 6 from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm, or let us know when you are available to carry petitions and we’ll work out the details with you.

Update: If you want to get more involved with a particular campaign, you can volunteer specifically for petitioning shifts with them:

Christopher Marte: https://forms.gle/Q41ekPppSxR7x2WC8

Lindsey Boylan: https://forms.gle/TVgAempGJv5EYFcX6