This is The Sprint for City Hall, a limited-run series on the critical Democratic primary race for mayor.

Ranked-choice voting should be as simple as ordering a barbecue platter. Yet many New Yorkers remain befuddled about how it works. We’re going to demystify it for you.

I’m Dean Chang, and I oversee The New York Times’s coverage of the New York City mayoral race. In today’s newsletter, we take a close look at how ranked-choice balloting worked in the last mayoral primary, explain why some candidates are teaming up against former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and see how one subway aficionado plans to rank his choices. But first, the news.

Some of the language used in an ad paid for by a super PAC, Fix the City, seemed to match wording guidance on Andrew Cuomo’s campaign website.Credit…Andrew Cuomo for Mayor of New York City