About Ranked Choice Voting
Ranked Choice Voting allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot according to their preference - 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc. Voters cast their vote for their favorite candidate knowing that if he or she doesn't gather enough votes to win, their vote will count toward their second choice. In a single-winner election, votes cast for the least popular candidate are not "wasted", but rather redistributed to more popular candidates, based on the voters' second choices, until one candidate wins with a majority of votes.
MPR News: Instant Runoff Voting Explained
Single Seat Elections:
Multiple Seat Elections:
Buzz Cummins and Cyndi Lesher: Ranked choice voting offers hope and healing for a divided politics
Once praised as a model of good government, our state is now suffering instability, confusion and stalemate.
The cliche that "politics is a blood sport" has never rung more true. Even in Minnesota, politics has gotten downright uncivil — and citizens are the real victims.
We've both worked in Minnesota politics, having served under two different Republican governors (Al Quie and Tim Pawlenty). It's been our perception — and we know many people across the political spectrum who share it — that demagoguery and divisiveness have been escalating for years. That might be good for purveyors of negative political advertising, but it's bad for the rest of the state: not just in dividual voters, but business and civic institutions as well.
“Democracy works best when the will of the people is served by someone obtaining more than 50% of the vote. No elected person or candidate should ever be afraid of securing the majority of the votes to earn their seat. It’s that simple.”
Paul Meunier, former Mayor of Ham Lake
Caucus-goers across MN Agree: RCV ‘Just Makes Sense!’
February 24, 2011 -- Astounding! In nearly 100 precinct caucuses – both DFL and Republican – in every corner of the state, grassroots reformers introduced and passed Ranked Choice Voting resolutions.
Buzz Cummins and Cyndi Lesher: Ranked choice voting offers hope and healing for a divided politics
Once praised as a model of good government, our state is now suffering instability, confusion and stalemate.
The cliche that "politics is a blood sport" has never rung more true. Even in Minnesota, politics has gotten downright uncivil — and citizens are the real victims.
We've both worked in Minnesota politics, having served under two different Republican governors (Al Quie and Tim Pawlenty). It's been our perception — and we know many people across the political spectrum who share it — that demagoguery and divisiveness have been escalating for years. That might be good for purveyors of negative political advertising, but it's bad for the rest of the state: not just in dividual voters, but business and civic institutions as well.
George Latimer: Happy Non-Primary Day, St. Paulites
By George Latimer, former mayor of St. Paul.
Happy Non-Primary Day, St. Paulites.
Let me explain that. In the past, St. Paul voters were asked to make a trip to the polls the second Tuesday of September. (As of this year, Minnesota's primaries now fall a month earlier, in August. But St. Paul isn't having one at all).
Thanks to a smart, forward-thinking change in the way capital city voters elect their city council members and mayor, St. Paul voters and election officials alike are being spared the primary for this year's city council and school board election.