New York Is Not a Democracy

Could ranked-choice voting help Zohran Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo?By Annie Lowrey

An illustration of Zohran Mamdani speaking with sketches of thought bubbles. — Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. Source: Yuki Iwamura-Pool / Getty.

June 12, 2025

In most parts of the country, this June is a moment of quiescence in the campaign cycle. The president has just been inaugurated. Many House and Senate candidates haven’t declared yet. Homes are unmolested by flyers; television watchers are unbothered by advertisements.

But it’s a different story in New York City, where former Governor Andrew Cuomo is in an improbably close race for mayor with Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and member of the state assembly. In recent weeks, Cuomo has whipped up cowbell-ringing members of the carpenters’ union in Hudson Square and Mamdani has railed against corporate power in a church in the West Village. They traded barbs with smiles on a debate stage before marching down Fifth Avenue in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

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They are leading a field of a dozen mayoral candidates who will face off in a ranked-choice election for the Democratic primary on June 24. (Because the city has six times as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans, the Democratic primary is generally the de facto mayoral election.) Instead of picking one person to lead the city, voters will rank up to five candidates. This process is wonkish and confusing. But it ensures that similar candidates do not split a constituency. This, proponents of ranked-choice voting say, is the most democratic form of democracy.

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