Just weeks before it is set to take effect, six City Council members are suing to prevent the system of ranked-choice voting from being implemented in the city. One of those lawmakers, Adrienne Adams of Queens, joined Errol Louis on Inside City Hall to share why she and her colleagues are suing to delay a system which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2019.

Ranked-Choice allows voters to pick as many as five candidates and rank them in order of preference. But, Adams says there has not been enough education around the new system. She and her fellow plaintiffs say it will hurt non-white voters, a charge that ranked-choice advocates deny.

“It has the ability to disenfranchise many voters, particularly voters of color," Adams told Louis. “Right now we are really insisting that the education process goes forth properly and appropriately for all of our voters so that no one is disenfranchised."

When asked whether the lawsuit was being backed by Democratic county leaders in Brooklyn and Queens, Adams said, “I really am not in contact with either to be able to give you an answer to that. I just don’t know.”

The new balloting system will debut in a February 2 City Council special election. Under rank choice voting, the candidate with the most first-choice votes wins outright. If no candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes, the worst performing candidate gets eliminated and a new counting process begins. The process continues until a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.