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:
Bring RCV to Your Precinct Caucus on Feb. 7!
It’s that time again: Feb. 7 is precinct caucus night – Minnesota’s kickoff of the 2012 political process.
“To me, the most important potential benefit from Ranked Choice Voting is the profound shift it can make in the tone of our campaigns. Currently, a winning campaign strategy is most often based on driving up your opponent’s negatives, convincing uncommitted voters that your opponent is a bad person whom they should vote against. With RCV, however, it’s bad strategy to trash your opponents too severely since you might need their second place votes. Campaigns would necessarily shift from teaching voters to vote against the hated other side to teaching voters to vote for your candidate and his/her world view.”
Wyman Spano, Director, University of Minnesota-Duluth Center for Advocacy and Political Leadership; Co-founder and editor, Politics in Minnesota
RCV Ups Participation by Eliminating Low-Turnout Primary (Unpublished Letter to the Editor)
Thanks to reporter Rochelle Olson and the Star Tribune for the helpful and well-written Oct. 20 article “Ranked Choice Voting Steps Forward.” FairVote Minnesota has been working hard to ensure that the Nov. 8 debut of RCV in St. Paul is a success and a model for other cities.
Ranked Voting: A Smarter, More Empowering System (Unpublished Letter to the Editor)
I always look forward to Election Day, but this year I'm particularly excited to vote: Tuesday will be our first opportunity to use ranked choice voting. Our friends in Minneapolis began using this innovative voting system in 2009, and I’ve hoped for years to be able to rank candidates in order of preference on our ballots.
St. Paul Welcomes Bill Moyers – and Ranked Choice Voting
St. Paul (June 15, 2011) - About 150 people – an astounding turnout on a busy Monday afternoon – gathered in St. Paul June 13 to hear television news legend and respected political commentator Bill Moyers extol Ranked Choice Voting as essential to restoring “the promise of America.”
News Release: Bipartisan Bill Gives MN Cities Flexibility, Tools to Enact Voting Reform
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2011
Contact: Jeanne Massey, Executive
Director of FairVote Minnesota
jeanne.massey@info@fairvotemn.org; 763-807-2550
Bipartisan Bill Gives MN Cities Flexibility, Tools to Enact Voting Reform
ST. PAUL -- Today Minnesota is another step closer to smarter, less costly and more substantive elections. Voting reform advocates are cheering the introduction of legislation that would give communities across the state local control over the option of using Ranked Choice Voting and would streamline the process of making this change.