Barb Olsen discusses Ranked Choice Voting leading up to the Duluth City Council discussion on the issue, May 10th. Barb Olsen covers Duluth City Council meetings for the Duluth Reader Weekly.

Olsen highlights that Ranked Choice Voting would eliminate the need for a municipal primary election, which adds a costly and low turnout step to the process:

"Very few people vote in the primaries and you can potentially knock out a lot of good candidates for local elections...It doesn't give new comers to the political field the opportunity to get broad visibility."

Anticipating the night's debate, she speculates that some council members may be backing away from their initial support because of concerns about voter confusion and how it might impact their own elections.

Listen to full interview (first segment).