Zohran Mamdani’s name appeared twice on the New York City mayoral ballot?! No voter ID?! Eric Adams appeared on the ballot despite dropping out?! Andrew Cuomo’s name appeared last?! An election rigged against Cuomo?!

On Election Day, many people may have seen these things posted on X – especially as its CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted and retweeted them out.

This got many users riled up, claiming or implying that the city’s election administrators had intentionally stacked the deck against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to help Zohran Mamdani get elected.

Mamdani was declared the projected winner on Tuesday night with 50.4% of the vote. 

The issue is: None of this points to any type of fraud or anything nefarious targeted specifically at Cuomo. It does, however, highlight the hurdles any candidate running as an independent encounters, even when they are considered a top contender in the election.

A Brief Explanation of Fusion Voting

Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa do appear twice on the ballot. This is because NYC allows fusion voting – something many places in the U.S. don’t allow. Simply put, a candidate can be nominated by more than one party.

This happens quite frequently in New York City. Mamdani received the Democratic nomination when he won his party’s primary. The Working Families Party – which often nominates the Democratic candidate – added him to their ballot line as well.

Since each party gets its own ballot space or column in NYC, if a candidate is nominated by two parties, their name will appear under each party. But voters can only choose the candidate once. 

Sliwa won the Republican primary and became the party’s nominee. He was also nominated by the Protect Animals Party and could have appeared on the ballot 3 times if the Conservative Party nominated him as well. 

Fusion voting has a long history in the U.S., though it is rarely used today outside of places like NYC, Oregon, and Connecticut. A little-known fact is that fusion voting is partly credited for the growth and success of the abolitionist movement in the 19th century. 

People who support fusion voting make the following case for it, though it is rare in the U.S.:

• Strengthen minor parties – they can influence policy by lending support to major-party candidates in exchange for attention to certain issues.
• Give voters more expression – voters can say which values or priorities they want the winning candidate to reflect, not just which candidate they support.
• Encourage coalition-building – parties work together rather than splitting votes on similar candidates.

A Conspiracy Against Cuomo? Not Even Close

In many places, a candidate gets ballot space for the designated office they are running for and their party affiliation is next to or under their name. Since each recognized party in NYC is given ballot space, it pushes independent candidates further down the line.

The order in which candidates appear on the ballot in NYC isn’t randomized nor can administrators put candidates in whatever order they want. State law requires recognized parties to be listed first and in the order of vote total in the last gubernatorial election.

In other words, the parties are listed based on how well their nominees do at the state level. In New York, this order is:

1. Democratic Party
2. Republican Party
3. Conservative Party
4. Working Families Party

The more recognized parties there are with a ballot line, the more it looks like independent candidates are pushed to the corner – especially if they file to run later in the race, like Cuomo did after he lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani. 

The order independent candidates appear on the ballot is based on the order in which they or the independent body that nominated them filed a petition for the election. This is why Eric Adams and Jim Walden appear before Andrew Cuomo.

And while it is true Eric Adams dropped out of the mayoral race, the rules stipulate that a candidate has to drop out at least 75 days before the election for their name not to appear on the ballot. This puts the deadline for the 2025 election on August 21.

Adams withdrew his candidacy on September 28, more than a month after the deadline. 

This is a reality many independent candidates face across the U.S. They are always listed last, even by polling agencies when surveying public opinion on an election – if minor party and independent candidates are included at all.

The lack of visibility most independent candidates receive in the electoral systems in the U.S. contributes to an inability to gain any ground as the system prioritizes and even endorses two-party control.

If Anyone Got the Raw Deal in NYC, It Was Curtis Sliwa

In most elections in the U.S., independent and third-party candidates are treated as nothing more than spoilers for one party or the other. Their candidacies are often challenged to keep them out of an election.

But in NYC, the “spoiler” label wasn’t directed at an independent candidate like Cuomo, who filed for the general election to keep Mamdani from winning (i.e. someone who ran to actually be a spoiler candidate). Instead, it was the candidate who won the Republican primary. 

It is rare that a major-party candidate gets even a small taste of how harsh the system treats people who attempt to give voters a third or fourth option. But despite Sliwa’s position on the ballot, he is the one that was accused of being a “spoiler.” 

Even conservative outlets and Republicans called on people to vote for Cuomo, who is a Democrat. It doesn’t get much more bizarre in 2025 politics than Republicans calling their own a spoiler and actively advocating for someone from the opposing party.

Sliwa didn’t get the full independent candidate treatment. After all, he was invited onto the debate stage. But if NYC used ranked choice voting in the general election like in the primaries, no candidate would have to be labeled a “spoiler.”

Anyone who truly did not want Mamdani to win could have ranked Sliwa or Cuomo first and then the other second. And as likable as Sliwa was, there is a case to be made that he would have outperformed Cuomo. 

The parties don’t want RCV in the general election, just like they don’t want to open the city’s primary elections to 1-in-5 NYC voters who are registered independent, even when these voters come out in the hundreds to voice their desire for a meaningful vote in city elections.

Musk’s claim that the NYC ballot is a “scam” is incorrect. However, it does pull attention to how the system discourages and pushes aside competition in elections – a status quo that benefits both major parties, depending on who is in power.