Two Democratic candidates vying for the same Harlem Council seat —Yusef Salaam and Assemblyman Al Taylor — cross-endorsed each Tuesday under the new ranked choice voting system.
The move appears to benefit Salaam — whose claim to fame is being one of the defendants exonerated in the Central Park 5 rape case — by trying to fend off third candidate in the Democratic primary, Assemblywoman Inez Dickens.
Salaam and Taylor both urged their supporters to rank each each as their #2 choice on the ballot.
Ranked choice counting comes into a play if the first place candidate gets less than 50% of the primary vote.
It’s the second election cycle where the Board of Elections will crunch second and third candidates preference.
Early voting begins Saturday, June 17 and runs through Sunday, June 25 ahead of Election Day on June 27.
“This is about who is going to be the future person who is going to represent what Harlem looks like tomorrow. And the best thing about that is of course I get to vote in my interests. I’m going to vote myself first,” Salaam said.
“But guess what — I want you all to vote me first, and I want you all who represent me to vote my second — Assemblyman Al Taylor. We are together in so many things. I’ve got to tell you, when I began to really connect with him even more as this campaign started, from day one, it was so profound that we were thinking very similar thoughts, even though we had some differences. But we were able to come to the table early on.”
Taylor, who spoke first at the Harlem press conferenence, introduced Salaam as “my second.”
“No, I do not want to lose to Brother Yusef. And neither does Brother Yusef want to lose to Al Taylor. But what we understand is that there is something that the two of us bring to this table that’s uniquely gifted and talented,” Taylor said.
“His experience, the tragedy, the hardship that happens in American far too often, and Harlem is not immune to it. There is not a black man or boy or woman in Harlem that has not had an encounter with the police unless they’re still a toddler. However, we do understand the urgency of delivering resources to this community that are far too long not happening.”
The Post asked Taylor, who serves in the Assembly with Dickens, why he’s undermining her campaign and favoring Salaam, potentially playing a spoiler in the race.
Sources said the two-front runners are Dickens, a Harlem fixture with substantial backing, and Salaam after democratic socialist incumbent Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan announced she was not seeking re-election.
“That’s incorrect. I’ve worked hard for so many legislators, whether it was the current congressman, whether it was the former congressman, whether it was the former assembly person,” Taylor said when asked about helping Salaam and turning on Dickens.
“It’s an open seat, we’re all welcome here to participate. It’s definitely not one against the other,” Taylor said.