This is an election year in both our city and our union. This spring, the UFT’s political screening committees are vetting candidates for endorsement in the New York City primaries on June 24.

Several RTC members are on these screening committees, where they bring their unique perspectives as retirees.

Union endorsements are a good guide, but we can all benefit from doing our own research as New Yorkers, too. Visit your local candidates’ websites and attend their public events. Listen to what they have to say about the issues you care about. As educators, we know that knowledge is power and there is no substitute for voter education. And then, get out and vote.

The city primaries will again use ranked-choice voting, except for district attorney races. We each will have up to five candidates to rank, in order of preference, on our ballots. The candidate who garners a majority of the first-choice votes wins. If no candidate receives over 50% of the first-choice preferences, the candidate with the fewest first-choice preferences is eliminated and voters who ranked that candidate first have their ballots instantly counted for their second-choice preference. The process is repeated until there’s a final pair with a majority winner.

Ranked-choice voting presents both opportunities and pitfalls that are different from those we’re accustomed to with traditional voting, where the candidate who receives the most votes wins.

The 2021 Democratic primary for mayor — with 13 candidates in the race — took eight rounds of vote-counting before Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams edged out Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, who had, in turn, edged out Maya Wiley.

Not only is it important that we understand, individually, how ranked-choice voting works, but it is important that we as a union pursue a ranked-choice voting strategy that helps our endorsed candidates win.

This year is also an election year for leadership at the UFT. Our union has slate voting, in which groups of members can organize into “slates” and be voted on as a single bloc. This issue of the New York Teacher contains a special UFT election section that has campaign statements from all the slates. Please take time to read this material and educate yourself about the choices we have.

Union elections are a healthy part of union democracy. Every single person who is running in the UFT election is a UFT member whose candidacy deserves our respect.

We are incredibly fortunate to be retirees in the UFT, one of the only unions nationwide that allow retirees to vote in union elections. The Retired Teachers Chapter is an active chapter in the UFT’s organizational structure. Other unions have retiree associations that are tangentially affiliated with their parent union, but we in the RTC are an integral part of the UFT.

We may no longer be a part of a union bargaining unit, with salaries and working conditions to negotiate, but we still have a voice in our union. Let’s use it.

Ballots will be mailed out on May 1 and counted on May 29. Fill out your ballot and mail it back well before the deadline. Don’t throw away your vote.