NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. – I have lived in New York City for more than a decade, and I have never voted in an election that actually mattered. Not by choice, but because being an independent in this city means I am locked out of the elections that decide everything.
By the time November arrives, the winner has already been chosen, by a small fraction of registered Democrats in a low-turnout primary I was never allowed to enter. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than six to one, and where districts have been drawn to guarantee that margin holds, the general election is just a formality.
And I’m not alone. A record 45% of Americans now identify as political independents, according to a January 2026 Gallup survey – the highest level since Gallup began tracking party identification in 1988 – while both major parties have fallen to just 27% each.
In New York City specifically, more than 1-in-5 registered voters, over one million people, are unaffiliated with any party, according to New York City’s Campaign Finance Board. Every one of us is shut out of the elections that matter most, denied any real say by a system built for parties, not people.
Shawn Griffiths
But this is not just about who gets to vote. A system built around closed partisan primaries actively rewards extremism, polarization, and disenfranchisement. When candidates only need to win over a small, highly partisan base, there is no incentive to govern for the broader public and every incentive to perform for the base, resist compromise, and treat every policy question as a loyalty test.
The polarization we see in our politics is not a mystery. It is the predictable output of a system designed to produce it. Nothing meaningful can change until we fix the structure that keeps producing these outcomes.
Consider what we are actually voting on at the local level. Potholes do not care about party registration. Neither do school budgets, public transit, or safe streets. When we sort municipal elections by party, we import national culture wars into races that have nothing to do with them, bypassing the real needs of the city and each neighborhood.
This is why I joined Forward Party New York and why, on behalf of Forward, am proud to announce Forward Party New York’s endorsement of a landmark new bipartisan bill introduced by Council Member Frank Morano (R) that would require nonpartisan ranked choice elections for all New York City municipal offices.
What the Bill Does
This bill (Int. No. 0314-2026) would remove party labels from all New York City municipal elections, including races for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and City Council, replacing the current partisan primary and general election structure with a single nonpartisan general election using ranked choice voting.
Candidates would qualify through the independent nominating petition process rather than party primaries, meaning no voter is excluded from the start and no party gatekeeper controls who gets to run. The bill already has bipartisan co-sponsorship from Council Members Farah N. Louis (D) and Vickie Paladino (R), and it would take effect only after approval by a majority of New York City voters through a ballot question at a general election.
The people, not the party politicians, would have the final say.
A Model That Already Works Here
This is not a radical experiment being imported from somewhere else. New York City already uses nonpartisan ranked choice elections when city office vacancies occur mid-term, filling seats through a process with no party primary, no party labels, and open participation for every registered voter regardless of affiliation.
The process is clean, competitive, and fair, with no party labels and no backroom deals. Research from the Bipartisan Policy Center and Unite America finds that nonpartisan elections consistently draw broader participation, more candidates, and a more representative electorate than closed partisan systems.
The evidence that it works is already built into the city's own election history. The Morano bill simply asks why a process good enough to fill a City Council vacancy is not good enough for every city election.
An Outlier Among Major Cities
What makes New York City's situation particularly striking is how far out of step it is compared to other major American cities. Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas, for example, all conduct municipal elections on a nonpartisan basis.
Candidates appear without party labels, no partisan primary narrows the field before the public has a say, and elected officials must build coalitions broad enough to win over the whole electorate rather than just their party base.
New York City remains one of the only cities of its scale still running fully partisan municipal elections, clinging to a model that its peers long ago recognized as a barrier to good governance rather than a guarantor of it.
Why Forward Party New York Supports This Bill
When the incentive in every election is to appeal to a narrow partisan base rather than the community at large, leaders who try to govern differently do so at their own political peril. Politicians choose their voters rather than voters choosing their politicians. That system has to change first.
This bill is not a partisan measure. It does not favor Democrats or Republicans; it favors voters. I am grateful for Council Member Morano's leadership in pushing it forward, because it takes genuine political will to challenge the structures that protect incumbent power in a city as entrenched as New York.
New Yorkers who believe in fair elections, regardless of party or lack thereof, should contact their council members and make their voices heard. Ranked choice voting helps ensure that winners reflect broad support rather than narrow plurality. Nonpartisan elections ensure that every voter has a meaningful say in every race. Together, these reforms would make New York City's elections worthy of the city they are supposed to serve.
About The Author
Susan DiVito is a member of the state leadership team at Forward Party New York, a chapter of the national Forward Party, putting power back in the hands of voters through real alternatives to the two-party system and election reform. For more information, visit forwardparty.com and join the movement at forwardparty.com/new_york.