Get in Friends, We're Building a Voting Bloc To Swing the Mayoral Primary

Local, city-first abundance politics for more housing, safer streets, and a more beautiful city.

New York City Elections are next year, in 2025, and the city must select a Mayor, Comptroller, Borough Presidents, City Council, Public Advocate, and District Attorneys. You might not know it, but this is one of the most consequential elections in America, and 96.4% of residents did not or could not vote in 2023.¹

So, I'm starting a local, city-first, abundance-first voting bloc² in collaboration with my friends (that means you!). We will swing elections in favor of abundance.

The Sensible 70% is a project to gather a 7,000 person voting block in New York City to address local, complex, cross-partisan problems like housing scarcity. We call this “Sensible 70%” because we think the cultural warring that dominates the news comes from 30% of extremists on the far left and far right. Most of us just want a functional city - lower rent, more housing options, more subway lines, more beautiful neighborhoods, and less crime.

7,000 is the magic number because it’s enough to swing a mayoral primary.

I’m particularly inspired by GrowSF which recently won a majority of the SF Board of Supervisors’ seats, and helped Daniel Lurie win the mayorship.

How It Works:

1. First, and most importantly, you register to vote in New York City.

   1. If you have a New York State license, you can register to vote online.

   2. If you don’t have a New York State license, you can register to vote using a form from the Board of Elections. Talk to me, Priya, or Daniel to get a form, or fill this out and I will message you. You just have to fill out a few fields, then we can hold hands and walk to the mailbox together.

2. Secondly, this is a project to swing the Democratic Primary in June 2025 — therefore, you have to be registered as a Democrat to participate in the first action of the voting bloc. Due to the nature of New York City politics, many key elections are decided in Democratic primaries, not on general election day, which means the real important election is, of course, the Democratic Primary. If you can’t or don’t want to register Democrat, just talk to me — we will still work together (we’re all Americans here), we just can’t vote together in the primary.

3. Third, you register as a voter in our platform. That means we’ll send you a voter guide before the election, where we rank candidates according to their support for the abundance platform. More on that later.

After that, you’re in. You'll also be invited to our community events, like the Abundance Technology event we recently hosted, where members gather to discuss local issues and organize activities.

Finally, you'll be called to action, if you so choose. I hope you vote with us, but we need civic leaders, so members of the voting bloc will often participate in hands-on political action with us, including:

• Testifying at New York City Council meetings

• Attending council sessions

• Engaging in community service

• Volunteering on local boards

• Participating in neighborhood improvement activities like cleanup efforts

• Drafting proposals and strategy

Why join?

A voting bloc is when many people agree to vote the same way, such that in aggregate, their political power swings elections, which lets them barter for policies they support to be put on the table. This is especially effective in a ranked choice voting system, like New York City, because your collective is not just supporting one candidate, but many. In other words, even a small voting bloc could push several candidates on the ticket much further in favor of abundance.

I hope you’ll join me! :)

1. No One Votes in City Council Elections

2. This is the local first voting bloc. This is the "we're working on it" voting bloc. This is the "get shit done" voting bloc. This is the "do great work on behalf of your whole society" voting bloc. This is the truly "progressive" (as in progress) voting bloc. This is the builder's voting bloc. This is the Bull Moose voting bloc.