The Commons Gallery

General Elections NYC Primary RCV RCV Analytics

Ballots in Contest

12,713

Elimination Rounds

Exhausted Ballots

1,923 (15.1% of contest ballots)

Winner

Phil Wong

Final Round Share

51.5% of active

Margin of Victory

320 (3.0pts of active)

Phil Wong led from the start with 36.6% of first-choice votes and held on through 2 rounds of elimination. The largest transfer came when Dermot P. Smyth was eliminated, sending 902 votes (23% of their ballots) to Phil Wong. The final margin was 320 votes (3.0 pts of active ballots), while 1,923 exhausted ballots (15.1%) exceeded that margin — meaning those voters' preferences could in theory have influenced the outcome.

Notable: 1,923 ballots exhausted before the final round — more than the winner's final-round margin of 320 votes. This means exhausted voters' preferences, had they ranked additional candidates, could in theory have been enough to affect the outcome — though only if they had ranked in ways that changed the transfers.

How to read this: Ranked Choice Voting eliminates the last-place candidate each round, transferring their ballots to each voter's next ranked choice still in the race. Ballots in contest = voters who ranked at least one candidate here. Active votes = ballots still assigned to a remaining candidate in a given round. Exhausted ballots = ballots where all ranked choices have been eliminated. Vote counts shown in each round reflect votes before that round's elimination. Ties broken alphabetically by candidate ID (NYC BOE uses random draw; ties are rare at scale).

First-Choice Votes

Candidate	First-Choice Votes	Share of Contest Ballots	Result
Phil Wong ✓	4,653	36.6%	Won
Paul Pogozelski	4,094	32.2%	—
Dermot P. Smyth	3,966	31.2%	Elim. R1

Vote Share — First Choice vs. Final Round

Solid lines = candidates who reached the final round (left dot = Round 1 share, right dot = final-round share). Dashed lines = candidates eliminated before the final round (line ends at elimination, not final round).

Round-by-Round Results

Each bar shows how many active votes each candidate holds going into that round. Step through rounds or press Play to watch candidates gain and lose votes as the race unfolds.

Round 1

Round 1 Eliminated: Dermot P. Smyth 12,713 active votes

Candidate	Votes (before elimination)	Share of Active	Transfers Out
Phil Wong	4,653	36.6%	—
Paul Pogozelski	4,094	32.2%	—
Dermot P. Smyth ✗	3,966	31.2%	Exhausted: 1,923 · Paul Pogozelski: 1,141 · Phil Wong: 902

Round 2 Final 10,790 active votes

Candidate	Votes (before elimination)	Share of Active
Phil Wong	5,555	51.5%
Paul Pogozelski	5,235	48.5%

Where Did Eliminated Candidates' Votes Go?

When a candidate is eliminated, their supporters' ballots transfer to whoever they ranked next. This panel shows how each eliminated candidate's votes distributed — to the winner, to other remaining candidates, or exhausted (no further choices ranked). Cards are ordered by votes that went to the winner, highest first. Note: "Exhausted" means those voters had no more ranked candidates still in the race — their ballots stopped counting at that point.

Dermot P. Smyth Eliminated R1 3,966 votes redistributed

Exhausted 1,923 (48.5%)

Paul Pogozelski 1,141 (28.8%)

Phil Wong 902 (22.7%)

Candidate Summary

Candidate	First Choice	Votes at Elimination / Final	Transfer Gain / Loss ⓘ	Eliminated
Phil Wong ✓ Winner	4,653	5,555	+902	—
Paul Pogozelski	4,094	5,235	+1,141	—
Dermot P. Smyth	3,966	3,966	0	Round 1

How Many Candidates Did Voters Choose to Rank?

NYC primary voters may rank up to 5 candidates in order of preference — but they are not required to. This chart shows how many candidates each voter chose to rank (1 = ranked only their top choice; 5 = used all available rankings). Voters who ranked only one candidate are more likely to exhaust — their ballot stops counting once that candidate is eliminated.

Ranked 1 6,350 (49.9%)

Ranked 2 2,016 (15.9%)

Ranked 3 4,185 (32.9%)

Ranked 4 162 (1.3%)

Ranked 5 0 (0.0%)