by Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio

September 15, 2000

St. Paul, Minn. — Minneapolis voters will get to show their preferences among the DFL candidates for governor today while practicing a new voting procedure that they'll use this fall.

The Minneapolis DFL is hosting a ranked choice voting educational event Tuesday at 7 p.m. at three locations in the city.

Ranked choice, also known as instant runoff, will be used for the first time in Minneapolis city elections on November 3rd. The new process eliminates the need for a primary.

"The main intention is to make voters comfortable with ranked choice voting, so that when they do vote on Nov. 3 they are not surprised by the ballot they see," said organizer Kelly O'Brien.

O'Brien says gubernatorial candidates have no official involvement in the event because it takes place at designated polling places on what would have been primary election day.

"You can't campaign in a polling location on election day. That's how we looked at it. And so, governor candidates are welcome to attend any of the three events that they would like to, but they will not be given official time to talk to attendees."