“New York City is the place where they said, ‘Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side.’” – Lou Reed

A major part of last week’s national news cycle involved the Democratic primary election for New York City mayor.

I know next to nothing about the nuances of New York City politics, but there was one aspect of last week’s election that jump started my car battery and that is how New Yorkers cast their vote. New York City uses ranked-choice voting in its municipal elections, and I think this is something we could emulate here in Alabama.

Now before you reenact one of those old Pace picante sauce commercials and holler out, “New York City?” let me explain.

First, let’s have a quick rundown on ranked-choice voting, or RCV for short. Say you have three candidates – Smith, Johnson, and Davis – running for mayor. In this scenario you like Davis best, you are lukewarm on Johnson and you think Smith would not be suitable to be elected dog catcher – with apologies to all Smiths reading this.

In our current election format, you would mark your ballot for Davis, and that is it. Under RCV you can bubble in Davis as “first choice,” Johnson as “second choice,” and Smith as “third choice” or not color in a bubble for Smith or Johnson at all if you prefer.

If any of the three candidates gets more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, that candidate wins, and that is the end of it.

If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes then the candidate with the lowest number of first-choice votes is cut, and those voters’ second-choice votes become first-choice votes for the remining candidates.

Back to our scenario, let’s say Davis finishes in third place but no candidate receives over half the vote. You marking Johnson as your second choice can still help keep Smith out of office because your vote now goes to Johnson. It is like an instant runoff election without having to go vote again.

Now here comes the major caveat. I think RCV should only be used in municipal elections.

In Alabama, we vote in a lot of political races during our major election cycles every even-numbered year. At my precinct in Lee County last November, there were 17 separate races in which I could vote. There will be even more in 2026.

It does not make a lot of sense to try to rank candidates in low-profile races such as judge for place number three on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. It is hard enough to make only a single choice in races the average voter will know little to nothing about anyway.

The few who do try to rank candidates in every race would spend half a day filling out their ballots, and good luck with avoiding a mistake at some point in your ballot-marking process.

This is not much of a problem in city and town elections, though. Municipal elections are generally held by themselves, so voters only vote on the mayor and their city council ward race.

Voters who actually show up for municipal elections are generally more knowledgeable and less likely to be confused by voting a RCV ballot. Additionally, it allows cities and towns to avoid spending money on a runoff election which often produces a woeful, single-digit voter turnout.

Moreover, voters are more likely to have personal knowledge of some or all of the candidates on the ballot in a municipal election, making them easier to rank.

And, of course, municipal elections in Alabama are nonpartisan, so voters who strongly identify as a Republican or Democrat should be more likely to utilize the option to rank candidates since the candidates are not associated with a party or at least will not have a party listed next to their names on the ballot.

The best outcome would be for a state law giving municipalities the option to utilize RCV or to keep the traditional way of voting for only one candidate per race. Let each municipality choose what is best for its constituents.

The nonpartisan aspect of municipal elections would make Alabama’s version even better than New York City’s. Since NYC’s candidates can run under a party banner, the city holds a party primary and a general election. Only one election would be needed in Alabama.

So while you may hold your nose at using an idea from New York City, you can always point out Alabama would have the superior version. Take that city slickers.