When New Yorkers go to the polls on Nov. 5, they’ll see a ballot and will encounter an electoral system that almost no other American voter will experience. New York, unlike most other states, still uses a system of voting known as fusion that was once widespread and now almost extinct in American politics.

While longtime New York voters are likely familiar with fusion and its influential minor parties, most New Yorkers are likely unaware that, because of a change in the Election Law in 2020, fusion voting’s future is at stake in this election and in every presidential and gubernatorial election.