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# All eyes on the primary
- URL: https://www.gabestein.com/le2hqs2z/
- Published: 2021-06-22T23:01:17.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-25T12:51:59.000Z
- Description: I didn't have much time to write today, so here's just a quick note on the machine and the experience of voting in my first ranked-choice election.
- Author: Gabriel Stein
- Tags: Links & Sundry, democracy, Blog, #Import 2025-06-24 22:46

Although it’s gotten better in recent decades, New York City politics is still quite [machine-driven](https://rossbarkan.substack.com/p/eric-adams-the-machine-mayor). The Brooklyn Democratic Party, the machine from which mayoral frontrunner and current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams hails, is a [particularly corrupt](https://bushwickdaily.com/news/how-did-the-brooklyn-democratic-party-get-here/?ref=gabestein.com) outgrowth of it.

The machine [does not like](https://gothamist.com/news/lawsuit-seeks-block-start-ranked-choice-voting-next-year?ref=gabestein.com) ranked-choice voting, primarily because it decreases party leaders’ control over election outcomes[1](#fn-0-bottom). Ahead of an election that [may well be decided](https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvizm3xxx1jjvyv/dfp%5Ftech%5Fteam%5Fmemo%5Fnyc%5Frcv%5F2021%5F06%5F21.pdf?ref=gabestein.com) by ranked choice, the machine candidate and his surrogates are already trying to [sow doubt](https://gothamist.com/news/adams-campaign-calls-garcia-yang-alliance-voter-suppression-on-final-day-of-early-voting?ref=gabestein.com) about the potential result, absurdly comparing a completely normal last-minute [alliance](https://gothamist.com/news/three-days-go-until-primary-garcia-and-yang-strike-allegiance?ref=gabestein.com) between Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang to “voter suppression.” Never mind the fact that this low-turnout, off-year election for the mayor of the nation’s largest city is being held in [one of the worst](https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/apr/08/ask-politifact-are-new-yorks-voter-laws-more-restr/?ref=gabestein.com) states when it comes to voter access, thanks to longstanding laws supported by the very machine Adams represents.

In echoes of a certain recent election, Adams even had to be asked to clarify that he would [accept the result](https://twitter.com/Kiki%5FNYC%5FYG/status/1406428002028822531?ref=gabestein.com), and that he did not think the election was [likely to be stolen](https://twitter.com/gloriapazmino/status/1407078167886635016?s=21&ref=gabestein.com) or [rigged](https://twitter.com/rossbarkan/status/1406257718558695427?ref=gabestein.com). Make of that what you will.

As a voter, ranked-choice was a [fascinating](https://www.gabestein.com/pub/xnhk36ou/release/4) experience. In theory, it allows ideology and pragmatism to coexist on the same ballot. And for me, in this election, it very much did, as I was able to effectively choose both a pragmatist, in Garcia, and a true progressive, in Wiley. The extreme pragmatist in me loved this added strategic layer of voting, as well as the strategy of campaign alliances like the Garcia/Yang pairing. The hardcore progressive in me felt guilty for ranking Garcia first, and for loving her last-minute strategic alliance with Yang, whom I intensely dislike.

Hopefully, future elections offer us better choices, and less drama, as politicians and voters alike get used to strategic decision-making and odd alliances of convenience. In the meantime, I’m not looking forward to what looks like an early Adams lead, followed by [weeks of waiting](https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/6/21/22544497/when-will-nyc-mayoral-primary-election-winner-be-announced?ref=gabestein.com) to see if Wiley or Garcia can make their way back into the fold.

Though I don’t particularly fear Adams’ wannabe Trumpism, I am disappointed that we have to even consider it. One of the lovely features of machine politics is that appointed positions like election boards tend to become [bastions of corruption and nepotism](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/nyregion/nyc-voting-election-board.html?ref=gabestein.com). In this case, the synergy between the NYC Election Board’s incompetence in quickly administering the election and the machine candidate’s desire to delegitimize ranked-choice may work to set off another round of lowercase-d democratic stress that none of us need right now. At least it’s almost over.

### Footnotes

1. Some lawmakers make what I find to be good-faith complaints about RCV potentially limiting the impact of minority and poorer voters. But judges have [largely rejected](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/us-elections-government/ny-nyc-ranked-choice-voting-lawsuit-rejected-20210506-jdg7mo6hpvfwldlptc2kx7xmd4-story.html?ref=gabestein.com) the argument, particularly because lawmakers waited until the last minute to register their complaints against the new system, and the city truly appears to have [gone all-out](https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/315-21/new-york-city-launch-15-million-ranked-choice-voting-education-campaign?ref=gabestein.com) in promoting it. [↵](#fn-0-inline)