To give each voter equity
And little guys a voice
New York embraced a system
And they’re calling it Ranked Choice
It’s a fairer way by far to see
Who’s winning and who’s losing
And once you get your Ph D
It’s not at all confusing
To tell you how the process works
I’ll take you down a path
The one Tom Lehrer sung about
When he explained New Math
To bring some change to leadership
And make our nation thrive
You don’t vote for one candidate
You cast your votes for five
You rank your votes in order
So complexity’s increased
From the one you like the most
To the one you like the least
If none achieve majority
Fifty percent plus one
The count moves into second phase
And here begins the fun
The candidate of lowest rank
Will have their votes annulled
And from those tear-stained ballots
The second choices culled
The picks they made for second place
Will then be re-assigned
In a time and in a manner
That’s a little undefined
If there’s still no majority
No mandate we can go on
They’ll dump the next to last place dude
Ad seriatim, so on.
Eventually someone will win
That’s why the system’s sweet
Unless some ballots make one choice
And thus are incomplete
The mountains will be lowered
And the valleys all exalted
Never was democracy
So horribly assaulted
New Yorkers are ecstatic with
This system for selection
And they may be finished counting votes
Before the next election
