Pizza Ballot Invites NYers To Practice Ranked-Choice Voting

NEW YORK, NY — Picking New York City's next mayor will be like choosing between your favorite pizza toppings — and no candidate wants to be pineapple, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In his latest cheesy move, the mayor demonstrated how to use New York City's new ranked-choice voting system Thursday by filling out a ballot of pizza topping choices. And he wants all New Yorkers to take a slice.

"We need all New Yorkers to get in on this — this is a chance for us to practice and also answer an age-old question about which pizza we value most," de Blasio said.

The pizza ballot, which can be found online, comes as New Yorkers prepare to vote for mayor, City Council and other offices in the June 22 primary, for which early voting starts on Saturday. This year, voters can rank up to five candidates in order of their preference through the ranked-choice system.

But as the local races heat up, the new pizza primary has already served up its own controversy as New Yorkers debate the mayor's impassioned pitch for his choices.

First on his list? Green peppers.

"I have southern Italian roots — roasted peppers are a very big important part of our life," he said. "I didn’t even have to question what my number one vote would be."

Coming in at number two for de Blasio was a self-described "controversial" option, olives, followed by sausage, with a disclaimer: "Italian sausage, but it has to be good."

Fourth up was another contentious choice.

"Congratulations mushrooms — you’re often maligned, you're misunderstood, but you got on my ranking," the mayor said.

Last place went to pepperoni: "There’s a lot of boring pepperoni in the world, there’s some really good pepperoni, but I kind of always will say yes to pepperoni, so it belongs on my ballot," the mayor said.

Perhaps even more controversial, though, were the options that didn't make the mayor's ballot.

He had some choice — and loud — words for two options: pineapple and clams.

"Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza — we’re not in California," de Blasio yelled, putting an "x" through the pineapple choice. "This is sacrilegious in Italy."

As for clams?

"We’re not in New Haven," he said. "I respect a different way of life in New Haven. We don’t do that here."

Fill out your own pizza ballot here.