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Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
America, meet the Trump-Mamdani voter
'Trump and Zohran specifically? Gosh, I can't think of a specific person,' says Alexa Avilés, a New York City Council member from Brooklyn, who is, like Mamdani, a democratic socialist. 'I haven't seen any data on that,' says Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Mamdani opponent Andrew M. Cuomo who's become a critic of the former governor. 'I do not believe that the MAGAs in this borough flipped to Zohran,' says Donovan Richards Jr., the Queens borough president. 'I have not met a hardcore Trump supporter who is a hardcore Mamdani supporter,' says Shahana Hanif, a Democrat representing Brooklyn on the New York City Council. Advertisement Well, so much for that. Except… Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'They're everywhere,' says Farihah Akhtar, senior lead organizer with the group CAAAV Voice, which primarily organizes working-class Asian New Yorkers in places like Chinatown and Astoria. Nowhere or everywhere — which is it, New York? The answer could be important. It might reveal where, and how, the ends of the current political spectrum can double back on each other. And talking to voters who see something appealing in both Trump and Mamdani — despite the fact that their policy ideas, ideological allies and general visions of how government should operate could not be more different — could produce insights into how candidates might make themselves audible to potential supporters on the opposite side of America's vast political divide. Advertisement So let's see if we can't figure this out. People wait in line to enter Donald Trump's rally at New York's Madison Square Garden last October. Victor J. Blue/Victor J. Blue For The Washington Post A quick refresher: A few days after Trump's election, Mamdani — a 33-year-old New York State Assembly member from Astoria who was then a little-known candidate for mayor — had visited areas that shifted toward the now-president with a camera and microphone to talk to Trump supporters there about why they voted the way they did. In June, Mamdani shocked many observers by trouncing Cuomo and other opponents in the city's Democratic primary, making him the front-runner to lead the largest city in the United States. The apparent leftward, antiestablishment swing of New York's Democratic voters was especially interesting, given that Democrats lost support there in November compared with 2020, and pockets of the city moved toward Trump. Mamdani has drawn a connection between Trump's success and that of his own campaign. 'Brighton Beach went for Trump by 44 points. Last week, we won it by 16,' the candidate said in a video posted to his social media after his victory. 'College Point was a plus-11 Trump neighborhood. We took it by eight points.' And an analysis by the news publication Gothamist found that many of the election districts that went for both Trump in 2024 and Mamdani in 2025 clustered in working-class, immigrant neighborhoods like Corona and Flushing. This doesn't necessarily mean that lots of New Yorkers voted for both men. Last November's general election was open to all registered voters, while the June primary was a local contest open only to registered Democrats. So looking at Trump's numbers and Mamdani's is a bit like comparing a Big Apple and a smaller apple. Advertisement 'I'm sure he won a couple Democrats who voted for Trump,' says Michael Lange, a writer who's working on a book about the race, 'but it's just that the Trump vote share overwhelmingly comes from independents or Republicans, or Democrats who never vote in primaries. There probably weren't like, a ton.' As for our search, he had an idea. 'Get that gentleman from the Bronx.' Related : That gentleman from the Bronx is Yahay Obeid, an immigrant from Yemen and an air traffic control supervisor at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Obeid, a leader in the Yemeni American community, voted for both Trump and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last election - and then talked to multiple reporters about it. We reached Obeid by phone when he was at Home Depot, buying supplies for an upcoming move to Morris Park. As it turned out, Obeid did not vote for Mamdani — but only because a family emergency pulled him away on the day of the election, he said. But he does like Mamdani, and endorsed him on social media after hosting him at a candidate forum in the Bronx in May. People in his community are excited about a Muslim as New York's possible next mayor, he said. And although Obeid is more pro-police than he believes Mamdani is, he likes the way the Assembly member has talked about the breach between the rich and regular, working people like him. The billionaires earn a lot, and pay relatively little tax, he says. 'Is that fair? I don't think it's fair.' And not for nothing: He can't stand Cuomo. 'Everything is about him and his family,' Obeid said of the former governor, who has since said he will run against Mamdani as an independent. 'To the point where he renamed the Tappan Zee Bridge, right? Renamed it under his father's name, Mario Cuomo. Really? Like, the Tappan people, the natives of that land — the bridge was named after them. You take that away from them and you name it after your freaking dad. Who the hell are you to name that after your dad?' Advertisement His feelings toward Trump, who is not exactly shy about putting his family name on things, are warmer. Back in 2016, Obeid cast a losing vote for Hillary Clinton. 'And Trump went into office, and then just CNN was against him, everyone was against him,' he says. Obeid started paying attention and found that he agreed with the president's foreign policy toward Yemen, his handling of the economy, his efforts to keep houses of worship open during the days of covid lockdown. He became a fan and voted for Trump in the next two elections. What do Trump and Mamdani have in common, in Obeid's mind? A lack of complacency, a quality he associates with 'establishment' Democrats. He has no doubt that both men work '20 hours a day, every day, seven days a week,' for their people. When we asked Obeid if he could introduce us to any other Trump-Mamdani supporters, he put us in touch with Juan de la Cruz, a 32-year-old client account executive for Verizon. De la Cruz used to be a Democrat. But a few years ago, he told us, he was on his way back from getting a haircut when he was mugged by two men on motorcycles who took his jewelry. He says he recognized a Venezuelan flag patch on one of their leather jackets. The experience made him switch parties, thinking Trump's plans to seal the border would make the country safer. Last year he ran (unsuccessfully) for the State Assembly to represent Throggs Neck, in the Bronx, as a Republican. Related : Advertisement He also voted for Trump. But de la Cruz says he's been feeling unsettled by how the president is treating legal immigrants. It didn't seem fair to him that permanent residents (like the activist Mahmoud Khalil) could be targeted for saying they support Palestinians, many of whom own businesses where he lives. He thought those who were here illegally should get deported, but with due process. 'I'm like, 'Oh, my God, what have I done?'' he says now. And yet he stands by his vote for Trump: 'I did what I thought was right.' Since he's now a Republican, de la Cruz wasn't eligible to vote in the mayoral primary. But he says he's planning to vote for Mamdani in November because of the mayoral candidate's focus on the cost of living. 'I make over six figures, but sometimes I feel that money, sometimes it's not enough,' he says. He was struck by one of Mamdani's campaign refrains, which de la Cruz now paraphrased: 'Every politician, they all say that New York is the best city in the world. But what's the best city if people can't afford to live in it?' Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, at a labor union rally in Manhattan on July 2. What do Trump and Mamdani have in common? According to one vote, a lack of complacency, a quality that is associated with 'establishment' Democrats. HIROKO MASUIKE/NYT Obeid and de la Cruz are relatively outspoken. We were curious about the less-public New York residents who voted for Trump and who also support Mamdani. So we asked for help from some local political groups that do work in those neighborhoods where both Trump and Mamdani got a lot of votes. Advertisement One was CAAAV Voice, the organization focused on Asian American voters, which had contacted an estimated 40,000 in their effort to get out the vote for Mamdani. 'Every day that we were on the phones and doors, we would meet people who had voted for Trump,' Akhtar, the CAAAV Voice organizer, assured us. 'Some of them, of their own admission, named regret and disappointment with what they're seeing now.' Could she introduce us to one? We were soon making the acquaintance, via Zoom, of Abdur Rahman, a 69-year-old retiree living in Woodside, Queens. Rahman, who immigrated from Bangladesh, agreed to talk to us via Zoom from CAAAV Voice's office in Astoria, with Akhtar and another organization member interpreting. Now a naturalized citizen, Rahman believes America should be first, and that leaders should take care of their constituents first. 'There isn't really peace in America, and we have to think about ourselves first before we think about anywhere else,' he said via interpreter. Trump's actions on immigration have been more extreme than Rahman had expected when he voted for him last year. He knew that the president would target undocumented immigrants for deportation and tighten the border, but he thought enforcement would be limited to criminals. But now many people who came here from other countries seeking asylum are being told to leave. 'They're not safe here and they're not safe there. So what are these people supposed to do?' Related : The administration's aggressive approach has made him question the future of the Republican Party, and this year he canvassed with CAAAV Voice for Mamdani. He liked what the candidate was saying about making things more affordable. Like Obeid and de la Cruz, he didn't cast a vote for Mamdani last month. Rahman has been a Republican since coming to the United States in 1991. Card-carrying, literally: From his pocket he produces a card with an eagle insignia and the logo of the Republican National Committee that reads 'LIFE MEMBER.' And yet he is in favor of Mamdani. A Republican backing a democratic socialist. How to square this circle? 'Populism is not an ideology, it's an emotion,' says Mario Nicoletto, campaigns committee chairman for the New York Young Republican Club. 'People are pissed off and they're upset about the status quo and how the elites have failed the younger generation — or I'd argue, all generations of the country.' 'What it underscores is that voters don't necessarily judge everything on a left-to-right axis all the time,' says Smith, the Democratic strategist. 'And that when we just view them as simple creatures like that, we're missing something important.' 'People are rejecting the old and just wanting something different and new, wanting a message that really resonates with them, that they see themselves in,' says Avilés, the council member from Brooklyn. It seems as if the Trump-Mamdani voter will exist come the general. But does such a person already exist? Someone who's already cast a ballot for both? She does, and she's in Brooklyn. People vote at a polling location at Louis D. Brandeis High School on the mayoral primary election day in the Manhattan. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images Momena Begum is a 47-year-old naturalized citizen from Bangladesh who works in home health care. She's a Democrat, and back in 2020 she saw in Biden a politician who could end the chaos of the first Trump era and nurse the country back to stability. She wanted him to deliver on his promise to cancel student debt, something the Biden administration tried to do before meeting resistance in the courts. Then came the attack by Hamas on Israel, and Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Begum felt that Bangladeshis had a certain kinship with Palestinians. After over a year of fighting, she was fed up with Biden for not bringing an end to the war, so she, like many of her fellow Muslims, went for the alternative. The Muslim community voted for Trump to stop the war in Gaza, Begum said through an interpreter provided by DRUM Beats, a political group focused on working-class South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities in New York. That's our only hope, she thought at the time. Begum is a member of DRUM Beats, which supported Mamdani, and she got to see him speak. The mayor of New York may not have the power to stop the war, but Begum liked that Mamdani supports the Palestinian community. And he promised to make some things better at home: child care for working mothers like her, free buses and a rent freeze. On the night of the primary, as Cuomo conceded, Mamdani thanked the Bangladeshi aunties for supporting his campaign. 'A different kind of Democrat,' Begum thought. And the Trump-Mamdani supporters are a different kind of constituent. Anjuman Ali contributed to this article.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Bally's (BALY) Shares Are Falling Today
Shares of gaming, betting and entertainment company Bally's Corporation (NYSE:BALY) fell 4.8% in the afternoon session after its bid for a New York casino license was all but ended after the New York City Council rejected the company's land-use rezoning proposal for its planned $4 billion Bronx casino. The council voted 29-9 to disapprove the zoning changes necessary for Bally's to build its proposed casino resort at Ferry Point Park. The project's failure to secure this key approval is a major blow to the company's ambitions to enter the lucrative downstate New York market, for which only three casino licenses are available. Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato, who represents the district, led the opposition, stating the developers "came to the table a little too late, with promises too vague and a process too flawed to rebuild the trust that was already lost in our community." The decision casts significant doubt on the future of the proposed development, which was set to include a 500-room hotel and a 2,000-seat entertainment venue. The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Bally's? Access our full analysis report here, it's free. Bally's shares are extremely volatile and have had 49 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today's move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. Bally's is down 49.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $9.90 per share, it is trading 55.1% below its 52-week high of $22.07 from November 2024. Unless you've been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story.
New York Post
14-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
NYC bill would ban pet stores from hawking birds — leaving activists crowing and small-biz owners crying fowl
City pet shops would be barred from hawking birds under a new local bill that's pitting animal activists against mom-and-pop peddlers. The animal-rights camp says the proposed New York City Council plan — introduced less than a year after the Big Apple banned shops from selling cats, dogs and rabbits — is needed to thwart cramped, inhumane breeding mills. Advertisement 'Birds are not decorations, toys, or commodities—they are living, feeling animals who should not spend their lives caged in tiny New York City apartments,' said Allie Feldman Taylor, founder and president of Voters For Animal Rights, which has been pushing for the ban alongside Councilwoman Diana Ayala. But bird sellers are crying foul, claiming the bill could be their swan song. 6 Big Apple pet stores would be banned from selling birds under a new City Council bill. Michael Nagle Advertisement 6 If the plan passes, it would be a swan song for many of Gotham's mom-and-pop shops, owners say. Michael Nagle 'They're going to force people out of business,' said Sayari Hichem, a former pizza-shop worker who has owned Royal Birds & Supplies in Richmond Hill, Queens, for just under two years. 'It's going to affect every single person [involved].' The bill would bar pet stores from slinging parrots, parakeets, cockatiels, macaws and other popular pet species but not ban the peddling of poultry such as chickens. If passed, it would mark the first retail ban of birds in the state. A similar bill at the state level is in committee. Advertisement 'New York has already banned the retail sale of dogs and cats due to the cruelties of the puppy mill industry,' said Humane Long Island Executive Director John Di Leonardo to The Post. 'However, these cruelties pale in comparison to an industry that cages birds by the hundreds or even thousands in cramped and barren cages,' he said — adding the birds screech, suffer and mutilate themselves in confinement. 6 Birds in cages are peddled for sale at Royal Birds & Supplies in Richmond Hill, Queens. Michael Nagle But the legislation is already ruffling feathers in the Big Apple's pet-store community, with a 'high percentage' of bird shops and supply stores expected to close as a result, according to Felix Nieves, who owns Pet NV Discounts in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Advertisement Nieves, who has run his Central Avenue supply shop for 37 years, fears that his store — which doesn't sell live animals — would be another casualty of the ban. 6 'They're going to force people out of business,' said Royal Birds owner Sayari Hichem. Michael Nagle 'When they banned rabbits, there was a decline in sales for rabbit food and cages,' he said. 6 Bird-peddling shops say they're the best way to regulate the market. Michael Nagle Hichem, 49, who sells about three birds per week, warned that the bill will only move bird sales to the unregulated 'black market,' where many breeders have allegedly already started turning a profit without a middleman. Megan Walton of the New York-based avian sanctuary Pigeons for Miles said the proposed legislation could result in a 'backyard breeding nightmare kind of situation very quickly if there aren't provisions in place to prevent that.' She said the ban will still take 'ages' to go into effect as Big Apple birds continue to suffer — including a baby parrot at a shop in Corona, Queens, that reportedly died inside its cage while the others pecked at the glass last month, according to a video shared with The Post. But Hichem denounced what he called the bill's one-size-fits-all measure and argued his store — which also takes in rescues and surrenders — is much more than just a shop: It's an avian sanctuary for birds who have nowhere else to go. Advertisement 'They think we're abusing the birds … It's not the right way, to ban a place that the birds need,' he said, adding that he hand-feeds and raises '90%' of his birds before they're sold to the public. 6 Hichem says his store — which also takes in rescues and surrenders — is much more than just a shop: It's an avian sanctuary for birds who have nowhere else to go. Michael Nagle But animal activists say bird surrenders from well-meaning families are already packing sanctuaries, and that the bill would open up avenues for local stores to generate a new kind of revenue by leasing much-needed shelter space for dogs and cats that can be adopted. Advertisement 'We experienced the same concerns when we fought to restrict wild animals in circuses years ago – now Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus is back animal-free,' Di Leonardo said. 'Businesses must evolve with evolving times, but evolving times simply means new opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs.'
Straits Times
14-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
New York City set to expand minimum pay law for delivery workers
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The delivery industry, which boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic, has continued to grow in New York City with more than 100 million deliveries from third-party apps. NEW YORK – The New York City Council is expected to pass a package of bills July 14 expanding legislation that improved working conditions for food delivery workers to include nearly 20,000 grocery delivery workers. A groundbreaking package of bills passed in 2021 set a minimum pay and addressed difficult working conditions for app-based food delivery workers, but only those who delivered food from restaurants through apps such as Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats. The new legislation will require third-party app companies, such as Instacart and Shipt, to pay grocery delivery workers a minimum of US$21.44 (S$27.46) an hour to match the increase food delivery workers received in April. The bills, five in total, will also mandate that the companies provide an option in their apps to give at least a 10 per cent tip, before or at the same time an order is placed, and that the companies must pay workers within seven days of the end of a pay period. The delivery industry, which boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, has continued to grow in New York City with more than 100 million deliveries from third-party apps. According to the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, there are around 60,000 restaurant delivery workers in addition to grocery delivery workers. 'It's a huge milestone to make app delivery work more dignified, better paid and safer in our streets,' said Ms Ligia Guallpa, a co-founder of Workers Justice Project. Her group organises Los Deliveristas Unidos, an advocacy group for delivery workers. Mr James Parrott, a senior fellow at the Centre for New York City Affairs at the New School who consulted with the city on the delivery workers' pay, said there needed to be more improvements in the minimum pay standards. But, he added, 'we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that these pay standards for delivery workers in New York City are the best pay standards that exist in the United States.' Mr Juan Felipe, 30, a grocery delivery worker, said he had cut back working for Instacart because he was making only about US$2 to US$7 an hour, but he did not plan on rushing back anytime soon even if the legislation was passed. 'We have to see the conditions,' he said. 'I'm pretty sure if we get the rate, that would be amazing. But we have to consider how it's going to be.' Mr Felipe said he would park outside Costco in Queens, just one of dozens of other gig workers waiting for possible gigs to appear in their apps. Council member Sandy Nurse, a Democrat who sponsored the grocery delivery workers bill, said she had watched the delivery companies evolve over the years at the workers' expense. 'The apps are creating an environment that is unregulated, that doesn't have a lot of worker protections,' Ms Nurse said. 'Because a lot of these workers are predominantly immigrant workers, there's just a lot of opportunity for exploitation.' On July 12, Grubhub said in a statement that it was working with advocacy groups and the City Council 'to make sure New York's delivery workforce is protected without sacrificing the flexibility customers expect.' Instacart said in a statement: 'At a time when millions across the city are already struggling with rising costs for food and daily essentials, we urge the City Council to consider the real-world consequences this bill could have on the families and communities that depend on grocery delivery the most.' Uber and DoorDash did not reply to a request for comment. In 2023, Grubhub, along with DoorDash and Uber Eats, filed requests for a temporary restraining order just days before the initial increase of the minimum wage for food delivery workers, to US$17.96 per hour, was to take effect. The requests contended that regulators used inaccurate data to calculate compensation. A judge ruled against the three food delivery companies, allowing the city to raise the workers' minimum wage to nearly US$18, and increase it further to US$20 or more in 2025. The three companies had also filed a lawsuit in 2021, arguing that the city's 15 per cent cap on fees charged to restaurants for online orders and 5 per cent cap for other fees was unconstitutional and prevented them from negotiating their own prices with restaurants. The suit was settled in 2025 after the City Council made adjustments to the law that created some exceptions to the cap. Although legislation would signify a victory for delivery workers, Council member Shaun Abreu, a Democrat and a sponsor of three bills in the new package, said he had noticed forms of 'retaliation' from third-party apps, like randomly deactivating workers' accounts and removing the tipping option at checkout. Mr Abreu said he planned to introduce legislation to prohibit the abrupt deactivation of delivery workers by major third-party apps. Mr William Medina, 37, who delivers for Uber Eats and is a member of Los Deliveristas Unidos, said he was very concerned about the 'thousands' of delivery workers who had recently been deactivated. 'This is a very critical issue that we're experiencing,' Mr Medina said. 'We just need somebody, a real person in the middle between the company and the worker who can decide very fair about the deactivation process.' NYTIMES
Los Angeles Times
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
How could ranked-choice voting reshape California politics?
Last month, New York City's mayoral race drew national attention when Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani secured a stunning victory over former governor and political veteran Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, thanks to the relatively new system of ranked-choice voting. Less noticed were the 28 contested New York City Council races on the same ballot, 10 of which also had no candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote. In most places, including in most of California, such messy results would trigger a costly runoff between the top two finishers in each race. But not in New York City, where voters rank every candidate in order of preference on their ballots. If no one receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, whichever candidate received the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and voters whose ballots had that person in the top position are then counted as supporters of their second choice. This process of elimination and consolidation continues until one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. Perhaps Mamdani would have won the primary in a runoff against Cuomo, but he didn't have to. This voting system reflected the will of the people without dragging out campaign season or asking voters to head to the polls an extra time. Advocates say ranked-choice voting ensures your vote isn't wasted if your top choice is eliminated. Proponents also contend that the system discourages negative campaigning (instead fostering cross-endorsements), improves representation for women and people of color, promotes more viable competition, reduces election costs and eliminates the 'spoiler effect' from vote siphoning. Ranked-choice voting is gaining traction, particularly in U.S. cities. Currently, 63 jurisdictions nationwide use some form of ranked-choice voting, including seven in California: Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, Redondo Beach, San Francisco and San Leandro. Polling shows strong support for ranked-choice voting among residents of California cities that have it, and most of those cities increased the diversity of their governing bodies after implementation. These systems have already saved money for California taxpayers by eliminating costly runoff elections. What would change if California implemented ranked-choice voting for state offices, or if general elections in the city of Los Angeles were decided this way? It would play out differently than in New York. Unlike New York, which holds party primaries, most California jurisdictions hold nonpartisan primary elections in which all parties run on the same ticket — known as a top-two or jungle primary. This means when a candidate loses in a state or local primary, they can't just switch parties or run as an independent to get on the general election ballot, as Cuomo now could. California's nonpartisan elections also mean that a candidate's party affiliation plays a competitive role in primaries, unlike in New York City. Because of this, candidates will sometimes strategically register with the dominant party before they run in California, as Rick Caruso did in 2022. This wouldn't necessarily change under ranked-choice voting, but some candidates might feel less inclined to employ this tactic if they think they have a chance at getting a voter's second- or third-choice votes while running as a candidate of their preferred party. There are two other crucial differences between California elections and New York races, one at the local level and one at the state level. Locally, most jurisdictions, including the city of Los Angeles, hold a general election only if no candidate wins more than 50% of the primary vote. Thus ranked-choice voting would eliminate the need for primary elections altogether in most California races. This would save jurisdictions money and probably increase voter turnout, given that more people traditionally vote in general elections than in primaries. In contrast, California uses a top-two primary system for most state and federal races, which advances the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation or margin of victory, to the general election. While this avoids costly runoffs, it often results in one-party general elections, especially in heavily partisan districts. Ranked-choice voting wouldn't prevent that scenario, but it might give underrepresented parties a better shot at advancing in competitive races. Less known is whether ranked-choice voting would alter the political makeup of representation if broadly implemented in California. Strategic crossover voting — in which Republicans and Democrats rank moderate candidates from the other party — could lead to more centrist outcomes. Likewise, in areas where one party dominates, consistent second-choice support for moderate candidates from other parties could move the controlling party toward the center. Conversely, in areas with many hard-left or hard-right voters, ranked-choice voting could push moderates to adopt more extreme positions to gain second- or third-choice support. The combination of ranked-choice voting with California's nonpartisan system would likely produce unique strategic incentives and political realignments unimaginable in cities with partisan primaries. Campaign styles could also change. Candidates may tone down attacks and even form alliances with like-minded rivals, as progressives did in New York, to earn second-choice votes. Those unknowns may make some state and local leaders hesitant to change the way we vote. After all, those who've won office through the current system are often the least eager to change it. But hesitation shouldn't overshadow the potential benefits: lower costs, broader engagement, more representative outcomes and less divisive politics. If California is serious about reforming its increasingly expensive and polarized electoral system, ranked-choice voting is worth a closer look. Sean McMorris is the California Common Cause program manager for transparency, ethics and accountability.
