As community leaders, we believe that we should do anything we can to encourage greater voter participation in communities of color and the underrepresented.

That's why we support instant-runoff voting (IRV) in St. Paul.

Opening up the political process encourages the greatest and most diverse number of voters making decisions that will affect their lives, schools and neighborhoods. This is exactly what IRV does -- by eliminating underrepresentative primaries and giving voters more choices in a single, decisive November election.

We believe that allowing voters more choices is neither confusing nor intimidating. In fact, we believe just the opposite. More choices encourage participation and involvement, and IRV boosts opportunities for candidates representing communities of color.

With IRV we saw the election of the first African-American mayor of Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1974. In San Francisco, IRV has helped elect the most diverse City Council in its history, and voter participation has gone up significantly there, most notably in communities of color, where participation has increased more than 300 percent in some neighborhoods.

State Rep. Carlos Mariani, St. Paul, and Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, St. Paul

Star Tribune Letter, October 31, 2009

This letter was submitted with the follwing additional other signatures, which were not included in the published letter due to a limit on the number of signatures permitted.

U.S. Representative Keith Ellison

Kim Ellison, Community Leader

Senator Patricia Torres Ray

Representative Jeff Hayden

Minneapolis Councilmember Ralph Remington

Minneapolis Councilmember Elizabeth Glidden

Former Minnesota Senator John Hottinger

Pastor Grant Stevensen, St. Matthews Lutheran Church

Stephen Wilson, St Paul District 8 Board Chair

Javier Morillo, Labor Leader and St. Paul resident

Rena Moran, Community Organizer