June 10, 2025 • 16 mins
NYC Votes Press Secretary Tim Hunter on Bringing Every New Yorker to the Ballot Box + More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's way up with Angela Yee and it's about that time.
I mean, we should always be thinking about what's going
on with our politics, especially locally. I want to say,
but today we have Tim Hunter here from NYC Votes,
New York City Votes.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Thank you for joining.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Now talk to me. You look so young.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That's funny now to be in the position that you're in.
But for people who are watching and listening, what is
it exactly that you do with NYC Votes.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, I serve as NYC Votes, the Press Secretary.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
NYC Votes is initiative of the Campaign Finance Board, which
has a robust matching funds program that allows everyday New
Yorkers to get their contributions to political candidates matched for
program participants. And with our initiative NYC Votes, we're raising
awareness about every upcoming election. This one is a really
big one because it's our local elections, and I'm excited
to get into it with you today.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
You know, I actually hosted like just a conversation with
some of the candidates who are running to be mayor,
and it was early on at Brick and so it
was really just about you know the arts and what
they plan to do to kind of support the arts.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So it was an interesting conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And we have a lot of people in this field
right now who are running for mayor, and we also
have ranked choice voting. So I want to break down
a lot because it's so important to me that people
feel energized to vote. And I think one of the
things they talk about a lot is that young people
don't feel as inclined to get out to the polls
and pay as much attention. What do you find because
sometimes you hear things you don't know if that's true
(01:32):
or not. So what do you see when you're out there?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, I think we see that, you know, a lot
of people care about their city, but sometimes people don't
care enough to make it to the polls. And I
think that's something that we're trying to change. We want
everyone to be able to participate in our local democracy
because you know, your vote is your voice, and especially
when you have such an important election coming up, we
don't want anyone to set this one out. We have
so many New Yorkers that are impacted by our city agencies,
(01:58):
you know, whether it's sanitation, education, taking in public transit,
or Department of Transportation. These are all issues that are
you know, decided not just when someone gets in office,
but before that, when they're running for election. And as
you highlighted, there's a very crowded mayoral field, but there's
also a lot of other races on the ballot. Right,
you got comptroller, public advocate. You also have city council
(02:19):
races that are up for grabs. We don't have debates
for those, but those are still also very very important,
and we want young people to also turn out. You know,
that's a priority community for us. We know young people
are not turning out as much as their counterparts are,
but you know, we're doing what we can to reach
them where they are and hopefully at future events in
the coming weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So June twenty fourth is the deadline, right that we
all have to go out and vote.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
By June and twenty fourth is election day.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But you can also vote early. I mean want to
make sure people know that too, because I'm a big
fan of voting early. I don't like to wait until
the actual deadline.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, skip the line. You know you can vote early.
I vote early every single election. Sometimes the Board of
Elections gives out wristbands to people that vote early. The
first hundred people.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That gets stick Yeah, yeah, you get your sticker.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
You can get a pen. You know, there's a lot
of great perks to voting early, and I think it's
important to do so. You can vote early from June fourteenth,
that's Saturday, which is also the voter registration deadline, all
the way to June twenty second, which is the Sunday,
So there's going to be no voting on the Monday,
June twenty third, and then the last day to vote
is June twenty fourth, And you can check out NYC
votes dot org to check out pole site availability, to
(03:22):
find your POLE site, or even to check to see
if you're registered to vote.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You know, I want to ask you this.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Before I go vote, I do always try to make
a plan, and I think that's important because you don't
want to go in there and be like, I don't
know who this person is, who's on the ballot? So
how can people find out who's on the ballot? What
should we be planning for to do so that when
we go in there as nice and smooth and we
know exactly, because sometimes it's not enough to just go
down the line of who it is that you're voting for.
You want to make sure like, all right, well who's
(03:47):
a better candidate? Well is this person accountable for this?
But let me do my research ahead of time. What's
the plan?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh, we should all take a page on Angelee's book.
Make sure you make a plan to vote. It's very
very important, you know. I think the first step that
you want to do is one, let's make sure that
you can vote. Right. So, like I said earlier, check
out NYC votes dot org. You can look up your
voter registration on the Board of Elections website as well,
just to make sure that you are eligible to vote again, like,
you're only going to be able to vote in your
party's primary, right. We have closed primaries here in New York,
(04:15):
and the party enrollment deadline has passed. So if you're
a Republican, you can only vote in the Republican primary.
If you're a Democrat, you can only vote in the
Democratic primary. If you're an independent, you're gonna have to
wait to the general election to vote. And then, as
it relates to making a plan, we've helped you out
with that by mailing voter guides to every single New Yorker.
If you check your mailbox, you probably have gotten already,
(04:35):
or if you haven't, you might get it later this week.
You know, the voter guide explains exactly who's going to
be running, who you'll find on your ballot, their policy platforms,
you know, in a nutshell, and if you want to
dig deeper, you can check out their campaign website or
look at our online voter guide, which has been updated
with information you know about all the candidates that you'll
be seeing in your neighborhood or even on the ballot
(04:58):
when you get to the poll site.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Now, come to NYC votes. You guys are not endorsing anybody.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I just want to make sure people are aware of
what exactly it is that you're doing. So explain that
to me too, because sometimes people feel like, oh, I
don't want them pushing a certain candidate on me or
a party.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, we do not push candidates on our voters. We
just want voters to be informed and engaged. We are
a nonpartisan, independent agency, which means that we are not
allowed to tell you who to vote for, So our
job is to just tell you the dates, tell you
how you can vote on the different ways that you
can do so and make sure that you have all
the tools you need to exercise your democratic right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So wait is now I got to ask you this
because there's a debate coming up and we're going to
be together at coffee uplifts people. We both live in Brooklyn.
Ye and yes, best I do or Die It used
to be and I was like bedstide thrive, brunching wine,
brunching bays. But yes, so we're going to be actually
(05:52):
having an event so that we can all watch together. Right,
we can all watch on June twelfth, So we'll be
at the coffee shop. I think it's seven to eight
is that the debate time. So we'll be there from
like six thirty to eight thirty. We'll have some drinks,
some food, and just some conversation because I do want
people to watch because one thing I will say is
it's not enough to just do research by reading, but
(06:14):
you need to see what comes out of people's mouths
for real, totally. And that's why this is important too,
to watch these debates so you can see who you like,
who you don't like.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I want to say people have been coming to my
door also been out there, Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
They have and asking me questions and I have been
engaging in those conversations, which is you know, I think
it's not enough for me because I'm from Brooklyn, I
live in Bedstye, I have businesses in Bedstye, And that's
why I try my hardest no matter what, Like you
want to make sure quality life is good. I can't
just complain about things if I'm not part of the process.
I always say that, Like if I'm not voting, if
(06:48):
I'm not supporting a candidate, if I'm not paying attention
having my voice heard, then what say do I really
have I could complain about, like you said, sanitation issues,
I could complain about, you know, take so many different things.
We complain about things all the time. But if you're
not part of the process, then what are you really doing?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Like who are you benefiting with? You're just you're just there.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, you don't want anyone to make these decisions for you, right,
Like I think when you when you look at elections,
there's a lot of elections that are determined by just
a handful of votes, right, And I think it's important
not only that you show up to vote, that you're
also informed. Right, if you're the deciding vote in an election,
You don't want to leave that up to chance, right,
You want to be as informed as possible heading into
the poll site, making sure you're making the right decisions.
(07:32):
And obviously, you know, debates are a great opportunity for
you to hear from candidates directly and watch how they
interact with each other as well, so you can kind
of make an educated decision based on what are topics
and issues that are impacting the lives of everyday New Yorkers.
Whether it's healthcare, whether it's childcare, which has become a
big issue, whether it's housing, which is also a huge
(07:55):
issue as well. These you know, individuals are going to
be making decisions.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Housing is like one of the biggest issues.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Oh yeah, huge.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I would just say when I look at what people
are talking about and what matters to them, what they
are really paying attention to, what these candidates have to
say about their plan to make sure that we have
housing that's affordable, because you know, it's crazy times out here,
that's crazy times.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Not best I do a die anymore, I can't pay
the rent.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Now.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I want to ask you ranked choice voting. Yes, I
know what that is because I've you know, had to
participate before it can be confusing sometimes for people, But
I just want you to break it down on exactly
what it is, why it matters, you know, why you
should be making sure that you go one through five.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You don't have to do all five, but it's better
for you to do that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So can you explain what ranked choice voting is and
why and why it's a good system for sure?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Rank choice voting. This is our second time using rank
choice voting citywide. For folks that had a city council
election in twenty twenty three, you might this might be
your third time using it. Our CV is relatively new
to New York City, but we've done it before, and.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That's what Adam's one, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
You know, it was a very you know, I think
a new experience for a lot of New Yorkers heading
to the polls and not just picking one person but
being allowed to pick up to five. But I do
want to like demystify it already, right for our listeners,
Ranked choice voting is not something that should be confusing.
It's something that you should view as an opportunity for
(09:21):
you to expand the reach of your vote. And I mean, like,
when I'm saying this, I mean like allowing yourself to
do more research on a broader field, especially when you
have a mayoral field where you have like like nine
or ten candidates on a debate stage, you don't know
who you want to pick from. When you head to
the polls, you get to rank your top five. That
(09:41):
way that if your first choice gets eliminated, you still
have a say in the election with your second, third, fourth,
or even your fifth choice.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And sometimes we also torn on I'm not sure who
I like better. I like this person's policy when it
comes to this, but I don't like that, but I
love what this person says, you know, So that way
you can now say, okay, I would be good if it.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Is this person, this person, or this person.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Exactly, and it's counted, it's reflected in the tabulation. So
just to explain a little bit how it works. After
you vote, so you go into your poll site, you
rank your top five candidates. Of course, you can rank
less than that if you like, but it's encouraged that
you maximize your value. You use all five of your choices,
and then if a candidate gets fifty percent of the
total vote, the election is called for that candidate. So
(10:23):
whoever gets to fifty percent automatically wins. If someone doesn't
get to fifty percent, then the next round starts. The
person that gets the least amount of votes gets eliminated,
and those people that rank that person first their second
choices are then dispersed amongst the candidate pool, and this
just continues until someone gets fifty percent of the vote.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So brackets exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
It's kind of like brackets, yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know,
it just ensures that whoever is getting elected is getting
elected by the majority of New Yorkers, right, Like you're
getting to that fifty percent number shows like consensus, and
I think it's a great opportunity for you to do
research on other candidates and figure out who has similar
policies that you might support as well.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
All right, it's not just the mayor that we're voting for,
Like you said earlier, the comptroller is it controller comptroller?
Controller comptroller? Okay, good, because I saw somebody was like,
it's controller.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, some people say a controller, So.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Now tell us what that is and what we should
be looking for in a controller.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Well, you know, yeah, in the comptroller. You know, the
ConTroll is like the fiscal watchdog. It like holds the
purse of New York City. They're in charge of investing
our pensions. You know, I'm a city employee, you know, Like,
I think that's very very important work. It also is
in charge of auditing all of our city agencies. I
think that that's something that is lost in a lot
of people. You know. The auditing capabilities of the comptroller
(11:40):
allow them to create reports that kind of outline where
we are spending tax payer dollars and where they could
probably be better spent. And I think that, of course,
it's an important race. I think we had a debate.
There were two candidates that were there. There's like two
of those leading candidates. We have one more debate coming
up as well, and you're going to see a lot
of ads not just for mayor again for comptroller, for
(12:01):
public advocate, and sometimes for city council.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
You might have like this public advocate do so.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
The public advocate is also, you know a very interesting
role in New York City government. It basically is a
standalone agency run by the one person that's elected, uh
and that role basically serves as like the watchdog kind
of like connecting the not like fiscally, but connecting New
Yorkers to city government, allowing New Yorkers to have a voice.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
When advocating for you basically, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I mean it's in the name kind of. But also
the public advocate has a little bit of additional roles
and responsibilities in addition to having the opportunity to work
with the City Council, which we can talk about a
little bit later, but they can also introduce legislation right
to like like push legislation that might impact day to day,
you know, affairs of New Yorkers, which kind of like
(12:51):
is unique that you have a person that's not on
the City Council that can advocate and like, you know,
champion legislation that they deem beneficial to all New Yorkers.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And we see also in the race for mayor controllers
former ones are also running from mayor. True, so that's
interesting the way that people you know enter and then
they go from they could go from city council to
running from mayor. Also, you know, it's all these different fields.
So city council is the next thing that we're voting
for too, right.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yes, so city council will also be on your ballot. Again,
these are all municipal positions all representing New York City,
So depending on where you live, you probably have a
different council member. But for the other the other positions,
like you know, those are all city wide, so you
know everyone's going to be voting on them. So for
city council, you know, these are your local champions, right.
These are people that represent your neighborhood. Sometimes they represent
(13:39):
two or three different neighborhoods, and they advocate for you
in the halls of city Hall, you know, pushing legislation sometimes,
participatory budgeting, bringing direct resources to the community, ensuring that
all the social services inside the district are functioning to
the best of their capacity, and you know, advocating for
Sometimes they're the committees that they have, right, there's an
no member of committees in a city council. Whether it's parks,
(14:02):
whether it's sanitation, whether it's cultural affairs. These are all
committees that have direct impact on us. Education that's a
huge one, and you know your council member probably serves
on one of these committees, and if you have any issues,
you should call their office.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
What would you say to somebody who's like, I'm not
going to watch the debate I don't really, it's whatever, Like,
who cares, I'm not even planning to vote.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
What would you tell that person?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I would say, again, don't let other people make decisions
for you. Not watching the debate is not something that
is a flex. It's not cool. It's kind of like,
you know, just saying that you don't care about Yeah,
you know, I was going to go that far.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, but it's true because it is ignorant.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
It's true. I think, like you know, New York City
is is such a you know, I'm born and raised
in Brooklyn, spent my whole life here. I care about
the city a lot. So I'm going to watch the
debate because you know, when I have kids here, when
I have a future, a family that I build here,
I want to make sure that I'm voting for the
people that are putting those people first. My family, my neighborhood,
my block. Those are things that I care about. And
(15:03):
if you care about those things, you should watch the debate.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And you'all be watching the fake ones on TV. You'll
be looking at counselm and Tate. Okay, you'll be watching
she the people, you know, why not? I think real
life is always so much more interesting. The debates get
spicy too true, let's be clear. So no matter what,
we're gonna have some drinks, you're gonna have some top us,
and we're gonna watch these debates and figure out who
we are gonna be voting for. We're gonna hit these
(15:27):
polls and we're gonna show people. Young people come out,
Everybody come out like whoever it is that you are.
If you can vote, make sure you're registered right, make
sure you go and find out what's your status is,
know who's running for office. Wash these debates so that
when you go in there you make informed decisions. It
only takes a few minutes. But we need you and
want you to be part of the process. A lot
of times people put these ideas in your head that
(15:49):
your vote doesn't matter and that what's gonna happen is
gonna happen, and politicians don't care about you, blah blah,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That is a form of voter suppression.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And so if anybody convinces you that that's a fact,
and they've convinced you to not vote, then your vote
has been suppressed and you've allowed that to happen. And
I think it's so important that we get out there
and do what we have to do and have our
voice heard.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, we can't just care about politics when we're watching Power, right,
we gotta be we gotta be tapped in right now.
So you know, we got to make sure that we're
tapped in. And visit NYC votes dot org. You know,
there's a lot of resources there. You can try ranked
choice voting out on our website. We have you know,
different bagel orders, different New York City animals, you know,
pizza rat pigeons that you can rank on our website.
(16:33):
So definitely check that out. It's really good information.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
All right, good, Well, I appreciate you so much for comment, Tim,
And we're going to be together next week.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So excited.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I'm excited this week on the on Thursday, we'll be watching,
So make sure you guys come out and join us.
We're gonna have a good time. We're gonna have these discussions.
I can't wait to see y'all in person.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I can't wait to go to coffee up lips people.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Have a goodrum punch for us. Yeah,
What's up.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's way up with Angela Yee and it's about that time.
I mean, we should always be thinking about what's going
on with our politics, especially locally. I want to say,
but today we have Tim Hunter here from NYC Votes,
New York City Votes.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Thank you for joining.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Now talk to me. You look so young.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That's funny now to be in the position that you're in.
But for people who are watching and listening, what is
it exactly that you do with NYC Votes.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, I serve as NYC Votes, the Press Secretary.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
NYC Votes is initiative of the Campaign Finance Board, which
has a robust matching funds program that allows everyday New
Yorkers to get their contributions to political candidates matched for
program participants. And with our initiative NYC Votes, we're raising
awareness about every upcoming election. This one is a really
big one because it's our local elections, and I'm excited
to get into it with you today.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
You know, I actually hosted like just a conversation with
some of the candidates who are running to be mayor,
and it was early on at Brick and so it
was really just about you know the arts and what
they plan to do to kind of support the arts.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So it was an interesting conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And we have a lot of people in this field
right now who are running for mayor, and we also
have ranked choice voting. So I want to break down
a lot because it's so important to me that people
feel energized to vote. And I think one of the
things they talk about a lot is that young people
don't feel as inclined to get out to the polls
and pay as much attention. What do you find because
sometimes you hear things you don't know if that's true
(01:32):
or not. So what do you see when you're out there?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, I think we see that, you know, a lot
of people care about their city, but sometimes people don't
care enough to make it to the polls. And I
think that's something that we're trying to change. We want
everyone to be able to participate in our local democracy
because you know, your vote is your voice, and especially
when you have such an important election coming up, we
don't want anyone to set this one out. We have
so many New Yorkers that are impacted by our city agencies,
(01:58):
you know, whether it's sanitation, education, taking in public transit,
or Department of Transportation. These are all issues that are
you know, decided not just when someone gets in office,
but before that, when they're running for election. And as
you highlighted, there's a very crowded mayoral field, but there's
also a lot of other races on the ballot. Right,
you got comptroller, public advocate. You also have city council
(02:19):
races that are up for grabs. We don't have debates
for those, but those are still also very very important,
and we want young people to also turn out. You know,
that's a priority community for us. We know young people
are not turning out as much as their counterparts are,
but you know, we're doing what we can to reach
them where they are and hopefully at future events in
the coming weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So June twenty fourth is the deadline, right that we
all have to go out and vote.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
By June and twenty fourth is election day.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But you can also vote early. I mean want to
make sure people know that too, because I'm a big
fan of voting early. I don't like to wait until
the actual deadline.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, skip the line. You know you can vote early.
I vote early every single election. Sometimes the Board of
Elections gives out wristbands to people that vote early. The
first hundred people.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That gets stick Yeah, yeah, you get your sticker.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
You can get a pen. You know, there's a lot
of great perks to voting early, and I think it's
important to do so. You can vote early from June fourteenth,
that's Saturday, which is also the voter registration deadline, all
the way to June twenty second, which is the Sunday,
So there's going to be no voting on the Monday,
June twenty third, and then the last day to vote
is June twenty fourth, And you can check out NYC
votes dot org to check out pole site availability, to
(03:22):
find your POLE site, or even to check to see
if you're registered to vote.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You know, I want to ask you this.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Before I go vote, I do always try to make
a plan, and I think that's important because you don't
want to go in there and be like, I don't
know who this person is, who's on the ballot? So
how can people find out who's on the ballot? What
should we be planning for to do so that when
we go in there as nice and smooth and we
know exactly, because sometimes it's not enough to just go
down the line of who it is that you're voting for.
You want to make sure like, all right, well who's
(03:47):
a better candidate? Well is this person accountable for this?
But let me do my research ahead of time. What's
the plan?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh, we should all take a page on Angelee's book.
Make sure you make a plan to vote. It's very
very important, you know. I think the first step that
you want to do is one, let's make sure that
you can vote. Right. So, like I said earlier, check
out NYC votes dot org. You can look up your
voter registration on the Board of Elections website as well,
just to make sure that you are eligible to vote again, like,
you're only going to be able to vote in your
party's primary, right. We have closed primaries here in New York,
(04:15):
and the party enrollment deadline has passed. So if you're
a Republican, you can only vote in the Republican primary.
If you're a Democrat, you can only vote in the
Democratic primary. If you're an independent, you're gonna have to
wait to the general election to vote. And then, as
it relates to making a plan, we've helped you out
with that by mailing voter guides to every single New Yorker.
If you check your mailbox, you probably have gotten already,
(04:35):
or if you haven't, you might get it later this week.
You know, the voter guide explains exactly who's going to
be running, who you'll find on your ballot, their policy platforms,
you know, in a nutshell, and if you want to
dig deeper, you can check out their campaign website or
look at our online voter guide, which has been updated
with information you know about all the candidates that you'll
be seeing in your neighborhood or even on the ballot
(04:58):
when you get to the poll site.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Now, come to NYC votes. You guys are not endorsing anybody.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I just want to make sure people are aware of
what exactly it is that you're doing. So explain that
to me too, because sometimes people feel like, oh, I
don't want them pushing a certain candidate on me or
a party.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, we do not push candidates on our voters. We
just want voters to be informed and engaged. We are
a nonpartisan, independent agency, which means that we are not
allowed to tell you who to vote for, So our
job is to just tell you the dates, tell you
how you can vote on the different ways that you
can do so and make sure that you have all
the tools you need to exercise your democratic right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So wait is now I got to ask you this
because there's a debate coming up and we're going to
be together at coffee uplifts people. We both live in Brooklyn.
Ye and yes, best I do or Die It used
to be and I was like bedstide thrive, brunching wine,
brunching bays. But yes, so we're going to be actually
(05:52):
having an event so that we can all watch together. Right,
we can all watch on June twelfth, So we'll be
at the coffee shop. I think it's seven to eight
is that the debate time. So we'll be there from
like six thirty to eight thirty. We'll have some drinks,
some food, and just some conversation because I do want
people to watch because one thing I will say is
it's not enough to just do research by reading, but
(06:14):
you need to see what comes out of people's mouths
for real, totally. And that's why this is important too,
to watch these debates so you can see who you like,
who you don't like.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I want to say people have been coming to my
door also been out there, Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
They have and asking me questions and I have been
engaging in those conversations, which is you know, I think
it's not enough for me because I'm from Brooklyn, I
live in Bedstye, I have businesses in Bedstye, And that's
why I try my hardest no matter what, Like you
want to make sure quality life is good. I can't
just complain about things if I'm not part of the process.
I always say that, Like if I'm not voting, if
(06:48):
I'm not supporting a candidate, if I'm not paying attention
having my voice heard, then what say do I really
have I could complain about, like you said, sanitation issues,
I could complain about, you know, take so many different things.
We complain about things all the time. But if you're
not part of the process, then what are you really doing?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Like who are you benefiting with? You're just you're just there.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, you don't want anyone to make these decisions for you, right,
Like I think when you when you look at elections,
there's a lot of elections that are determined by just
a handful of votes, right, And I think it's important
not only that you show up to vote, that you're
also informed. Right, if you're the deciding vote in an election,
You don't want to leave that up to chance, right,
You want to be as informed as possible heading into
the poll site, making sure you're making the right decisions.
(07:32):
And obviously, you know, debates are a great opportunity for
you to hear from candidates directly and watch how they
interact with each other as well, so you can kind
of make an educated decision based on what are topics
and issues that are impacting the lives of everyday New Yorkers.
Whether it's healthcare, whether it's childcare, which has become a
big issue, whether it's housing, which is also a huge
(07:55):
issue as well. These you know, individuals are going to
be making decisions.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Housing is like one of the biggest issues.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Oh yeah, huge.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I would just say when I look at what people
are talking about and what matters to them, what they
are really paying attention to, what these candidates have to
say about their plan to make sure that we have
housing that's affordable, because you know, it's crazy times out here,
that's crazy times.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Not best I do a die anymore, I can't pay
the rent.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Now.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I want to ask you ranked choice voting. Yes, I
know what that is because I've you know, had to
participate before it can be confusing sometimes for people, But
I just want you to break it down on exactly
what it is, why it matters, you know, why you
should be making sure that you go one through five.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You don't have to do all five, but it's better
for you to do that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So can you explain what ranked choice voting is and
why and why it's a good system for sure?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Rank choice voting. This is our second time using rank
choice voting citywide. For folks that had a city council
election in twenty twenty three, you might this might be
your third time using it. Our CV is relatively new
to New York City, but we've done it before, and.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That's what Adam's one, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
You know, it was a very you know, I think
a new experience for a lot of New Yorkers heading
to the polls and not just picking one person but
being allowed to pick up to five. But I do
want to like demystify it already, right for our listeners,
Ranked choice voting is not something that should be confusing.
It's something that you should view as an opportunity for
(09:21):
you to expand the reach of your vote. And I mean, like,
when I'm saying this, I mean like allowing yourself to
do more research on a broader field, especially when you
have a mayoral field where you have like like nine
or ten candidates on a debate stage, you don't know
who you want to pick from. When you head to
the polls, you get to rank your top five. That
(09:41):
way that if your first choice gets eliminated, you still
have a say in the election with your second, third, fourth,
or even your fifth choice.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And sometimes we also torn on I'm not sure who
I like better. I like this person's policy when it
comes to this, but I don't like that, but I
love what this person says, you know, So that way
you can now say, okay, I would be good if it.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Is this person, this person, or this person.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Exactly, and it's counted, it's reflected in the tabulation. So
just to explain a little bit how it works. After
you vote, so you go into your poll site, you
rank your top five candidates. Of course, you can rank
less than that if you like, but it's encouraged that
you maximize your value. You use all five of your choices,
and then if a candidate gets fifty percent of the
total vote, the election is called for that candidate. So
(10:23):
whoever gets to fifty percent automatically wins. If someone doesn't
get to fifty percent, then the next round starts. The
person that gets the least amount of votes gets eliminated,
and those people that rank that person first their second
choices are then dispersed amongst the candidate pool, and this
just continues until someone gets fifty percent of the vote.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So brackets exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
It's kind of like brackets, yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know,
it just ensures that whoever is getting elected is getting
elected by the majority of New Yorkers, right, Like you're
getting to that fifty percent number shows like consensus, and
I think it's a great opportunity for you to do
research on other candidates and figure out who has similar
policies that you might support as well.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
All right, it's not just the mayor that we're voting for,
Like you said earlier, the comptroller is it controller comptroller?
Controller comptroller? Okay, good, because I saw somebody was like,
it's controller.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, some people say a controller, So.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Now tell us what that is and what we should
be looking for in a controller.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Well, you know, yeah, in the comptroller. You know, the
ConTroll is like the fiscal watchdog. It like holds the
purse of New York City. They're in charge of investing
our pensions. You know, I'm a city employee, you know, Like,
I think that's very very important work. It also is
in charge of auditing all of our city agencies. I
think that that's something that is lost in a lot
of people. You know. The auditing capabilities of the comptroller
(11:40):
allow them to create reports that kind of outline where
we are spending tax payer dollars and where they could
probably be better spent. And I think that, of course,
it's an important race. I think we had a debate.
There were two candidates that were there. There's like two
of those leading candidates. We have one more debate coming
up as well, and you're going to see a lot
of ads not just for mayor again for comptroller, for
(12:01):
public advocate, and sometimes for city council.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
You might have like this public advocate do so.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
The public advocate is also, you know a very interesting
role in New York City government. It basically is a
standalone agency run by the one person that's elected, uh
and that role basically serves as like the watchdog kind
of like connecting the not like fiscally, but connecting New
Yorkers to city government, allowing New Yorkers to have a voice.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
When advocating for you basically, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I mean it's in the name kind of. But also
the public advocate has a little bit of additional roles
and responsibilities in addition to having the opportunity to work
with the City Council, which we can talk about a
little bit later, but they can also introduce legislation right
to like like push legislation that might impact day to day,
you know, affairs of New Yorkers, which kind of like
(12:51):
is unique that you have a person that's not on
the City Council that can advocate and like, you know,
champion legislation that they deem beneficial to all New Yorkers.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And we see also in the race for mayor controllers
former ones are also running from mayor. True, so that's
interesting the way that people you know enter and then
they go from they could go from city council to
running from mayor. Also, you know, it's all these different fields.
So city council is the next thing that we're voting
for too, right.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yes, so city council will also be on your ballot. Again,
these are all municipal positions all representing New York City,
So depending on where you live, you probably have a
different council member. But for the other the other positions,
like you know, those are all city wide, so you
know everyone's going to be voting on them. So for
city council, you know, these are your local champions, right.
These are people that represent your neighborhood. Sometimes they represent
(13:39):
two or three different neighborhoods, and they advocate for you
in the halls of city Hall, you know, pushing legislation sometimes,
participatory budgeting, bringing direct resources to the community, ensuring that
all the social services inside the district are functioning to
the best of their capacity, and you know, advocating for
Sometimes they're the committees that they have, right, there's an
no member of committees in a city council. Whether it's parks,
(14:02):
whether it's sanitation, whether it's cultural affairs. These are all
committees that have direct impact on us. Education that's a
huge one, and you know your council member probably serves
on one of these committees, and if you have any issues,
you should call their office.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
What would you say to somebody who's like, I'm not
going to watch the debate I don't really, it's whatever, Like,
who cares, I'm not even planning to vote.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
What would you tell that person?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I would say, again, don't let other people make decisions
for you. Not watching the debate is not something that
is a flex. It's not cool. It's kind of like,
you know, just saying that you don't care about Yeah,
you know, I was going to go that far.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, but it's true because it is ignorant.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
It's true. I think, like you know, New York City
is is such a you know, I'm born and raised
in Brooklyn, spent my whole life here. I care about
the city a lot. So I'm going to watch the
debate because you know, when I have kids here, when
I have a future, a family that I build here,
I want to make sure that I'm voting for the
people that are putting those people first. My family, my neighborhood,
my block. Those are things that I care about. And
(15:03):
if you care about those things, you should watch the debate.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And you'all be watching the fake ones on TV. You'll
be looking at counselm and Tate. Okay, you'll be watching
she the people, you know, why not? I think real
life is always so much more interesting. The debates get
spicy too true, let's be clear. So no matter what,
we're gonna have some drinks, you're gonna have some top us,
and we're gonna watch these debates and figure out who
we are gonna be voting for. We're gonna hit these
(15:27):
polls and we're gonna show people. Young people come out,
Everybody come out like whoever it is that you are.
If you can vote, make sure you're registered right, make
sure you go and find out what's your status is,
know who's running for office. Wash these debates so that
when you go in there you make informed decisions. It
only takes a few minutes. But we need you and
want you to be part of the process. A lot
of times people put these ideas in your head that
(15:49):
your vote doesn't matter and that what's gonna happen is
gonna happen, and politicians don't care about you, blah blah,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That is a form of voter suppression.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And so if anybody convinces you that that's a fact,
and they've convinced you to not vote, then your vote
has been suppressed and you've allowed that to happen. And
I think it's so important that we get out there
and do what we have to do and have our
voice heard.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, we can't just care about politics when we're watching Power, right,
we gotta be we gotta be tapped in right now.
So you know, we got to make sure that we're
tapped in. And visit NYC votes dot org. You know,
there's a lot of resources there. You can try ranked
choice voting out on our website. We have you know,
different bagel orders, different New York City animals, you know,
pizza rat pigeons that you can rank on our website.
(16:33):
So definitely check that out. It's really good information.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
All right, good, Well, I appreciate you so much for comment, Tim,
And we're going to be together next week.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So excited.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I'm excited this week on the on Thursday, we'll be watching,
So make sure you guys come out and join us.
We're gonna have a good time. We're gonna have these discussions.
I can't wait to see y'all in person.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I can't wait to go to coffee up lips people.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Have a goodrum punch for us. Yeah,
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