AGENCY TESTIMONY
Queens Public Library's Ranked Choice Voting education initiatives
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99 sec
Scott McLeod details Queens Public Library's efforts to educate the public about Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) implementation in New York City. The library developed various resources and programs to inform voters about the new voting method.
- Created web content explaining RCV process, background, and applicable offices
- Hosted a virtual discussion with Rank the Vote NYC and community organizations
- Collaborated with other library systems to offer RCV education sessions in multiple languages
- Organized programs linking voting to local issues, such as flood resiliency
Scott McLeod
0:09:04
In 2021, the entire city was preparing for the implementation of ranked choice voting, including for the offices of the mayor, the comptroller, public advocate, as well as council members.
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With the advent of RCV in claims and the likelihood of confusion and misconceptions circulating about the new method.
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It was imperative that we educate the public and reinforce the facts.
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Similar to our election lead up efforts, QPL developed web content outlining the process, its background, the applicable offices, and resources to learn about RCV.
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Ahead of the special election, 1st, using RCV, QPO president Dennis Walcott, led a virtual discussion with the rank of vote NYC and CBOs with deep ties to communities in the borough.
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The conversation had more than 1200 live and post live views and is still available to anyone who was interested.
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That same year, QPL along with BPL and NYPL were proud recipients of a go vote NYC grant to assist with public education and outreach for the June primary and November general election.
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Together, we sponsored a series of 4 RCV virtual sessions in Mandarin, Cantonese, Bengali, Spanish, and Haitian Creo.
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We also jointly hosted programs that prompted attendees to consider how voting has long term consequences in regards to local issues.
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A session with our Quinn's memory project entitled NYC Flood Resiliency asked the experts involved a dynamic discussion about flood resiliency in the city, including history, policy, and neighborhood level actions.
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This topic was especially poignant since Hurricane Ida had impacted Moon's residents in the month prior.
