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In an effort to illustrate how ranked-choice voting will work during the upcoming New York City mayoral Democratic primaries (remember: it is happening on June 22!), Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off an official pizza-topping referendum last week and the results are now in.
Drum roll please. New Yorkers' favorite pizza topping is... The pepperoni! Picture us not surprised.
Cashing in 9,709 votes out of a total of 19,417 casted ones, the pepperoni beat out the mushroom, which landed at number two, the sausage, the pineapple, the olive, green peppers, vegan cheese and clams, which were eliminated after round one.
We know that the point of the exercise was to teach us all how this particular ballot system works, but there's something about New Yorkers and pizza that elicits very strong emotional responses—which is also why de Blasio's own selections caused a ruckus.
The politician did, in fact, face a whole lot of criticism after choosing green peppers as his favorite topping. His commentary on the pineapple—which we happen to wholeheartedly agree with, sorry—also drew laughs and condemnations in equal measure.
"This is ridiculous, okay? Pineapple doesn't belong on pizza," he said. "We're not in California. [It] is sacrilegious in Italy to put pineapple on a pizza."
Of course, this isn't de Blasio's first "pizza-gate" of sorts: to the consternation of all types of New Yorkers, he was caught eating his pie with a fork and a knife back in 2014.
If all this talk about slices and toppings has got your stomach rumbling, you might want to venture out of your apartment today and indulge in some good ol' New York pizza featuring whatever additional ingredients your palate is craving. In case you need some guidance, here is our very carefully curated list of the 29 best pizzas in New York.
As they say in Italy: buon appetito!