How are Queens special election candidates ranking their rivals? They won’t say

Only one of nine candidates in the special election to replace Donovan Richards in Council District 31 has shared his ranked-choice ballot order. Image via Common Cause 

By David Brand

Early voting in a special contest for a Far Rockaway-Southeast Queens council seat begins tomorrow ahead of Election Day on Feb. 23. It’s New York City’s second ranked-choice election and, after a race earlier this month ended in a landslide victory, potentially the first real test of the new format.

Voters will have a chance to designate their top five choices in the nine-candidate race to replace Donovan Richards in Council District 31. If no candidates receives a majority on the first ballot, the last place candidate is eliminated and voters who picked that candidate will have their second choice tallied. That process will continue until one candidate receives a majority of the vote.

So how will the candidates rank their own ballots? Only one will say.

Manny Silva, Richards’ former chief of staff, was the lone candidate to describe his entire ballot during a forum moderated by WNYC’s Brigid Bergin and the Eagle’s David Brand Thursday night. The event was sponsored by Common Cause, Rank the Vote NYC and Disability Rights New York.

Silva previously described his ranked-ballot at a press conference earlier this month. He again said Thursday that he would rank himself first and Democratic District Leader Rev. Sherwyn James second. Nancy Martinez, the founder of a home health aid training school, gets his third slot and Latoya Benjamin, an economic development aide to State Sen. James Sanders, will be fourth, he said. Silva said he does not plan to rank a fifth candidate. 

“I chose the people on my ballot based on where they stand and the future of our Democratic Party and how vocal they’ve been,” he said. “This is based on what I’ve heard from the candidates and the candidates who are in line with me when it comes to creating some transparency in our political process.”

Nancy Martinez, the founder of a home healthcare training school, said she planned to vote for Silva as her third choice. 

“I’m not going to say who my number two is since the rest of the candidates don’t want to be fair about who they’re ranking,” Martinez said.

Martinez’s comments referred to the caginess of her fellow candidates, each of whom declined to say a single person they plan to rank.

“I’m keeping that close to the chest,” said Dr. Shawn Rux, an assistant school superintendent. He did however pledge that his “full complete transparent list will be released” at a later date.

Benjamin, the political staffer ranked fourth by Silva, did not return the endorsement. 

She said she does plan to rank other candidates, but she refused to share her ballot order.

“I’ve had many conversations with many of the candidates on the line today,” Benjamin said. “I do plan to rank now because after really understanding the system and listening to our constituents I think it’s important because I don’t think anyone will come out with 51 percent.” 

But Benjamin’s ballot order has significance. She said she does not plan to run in the June Democratic primary if one of her other, undisclosed choices wins.

“The only way I would not run in the primary is if one of my ranked-choice votes win then I would be supporting that candidate,” Benjamin said at the end of the forum.

Local entrepreneur Nicole Lee refused to share her ballot, though she said “at least three people” will get her vote.

“I do have a ballot in mind and it’s a pretty great ballot,” she said. 

Pesach Osina, the Queens borough director for Comptroller Scott Stringer and the only Orthodox Jewish candidate in the race, ran a close second in an earlier special election for District 31 widely seen as an example of the kind of contest that would benefit from the ranked format.  

Osina narrowly lost to Richards in a 2013 special for the District 31. He carried about 27 percent of the vote, capturing a bloc of ballots in Far Rockaway’s Orthodox Jewish community. 

Richards won with just 29 percent of the vote.

So who will Osina rank?

“I appreciate the question,” he said, before declining to answer it. 

Latanya Collins, a special education teacher, rounded out the responses. She will vote for herself, but the rest of the ballot remains a secret.

“I will be filling my ballot up two, three, four, five,” she said. “But I would like to wait until closer to the end before I share that … My vote, I’m going to keep it private this time.” 

Two other candidates, James and Selvena Brooks-Powers, did not attend the forum. 

James has said in the past that he plans to include Silva on his ballot.

A spokesperson for Brooks-Powers, the director of M/WBE contracting with the JFK Redevelopment Plan, said she is still considering how she will rank the other candidates.