By Brandt Williams
Published January 14th 2009 in Minnesota Public Radio
Minneapolis The city of Minneapolis has cleared a major hurdle on its
way to using instant runoff voting for city elections this fall. A
Hennepin County judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking to halt the process.
The ruling comes in the midst of a lengthy recount and court case involving the U.S. Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who holds a 225-vote lead.
Backers of IRV, which eliminates primary elections and allows voters to rank candidates for office in order of preference, have said the recount may have been avoided under their system of voting.
In 2006, Minneapolis voters approved the use of IRV by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, 65 percent to 35 percent. The Minnesota Voter's Alliance sued in an attempt to halt IRV from being used in Minneapolis elections, arguing that it's an impractical system that attracts large fields of candidates, which in turn makes it harder for third party candidates to get recognition.
In his ruling, Hennepin County District Judge McGunnigle wrote, "The City of Minneapolis has an important interest in respecting the democratic process, and the citizens of Minneapolis democratically voted for IRV by referendum."
McGunnigle added that the plaintiffs "have failed to demonstrate that IRV is either unconstitutional or contrary to public policy."
With IRV, voters rank all choices by preference on a single ballot. If no candidate gets a majority of votes, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated and those voters' second-choice votes are redistributed to the remaining field. The process is repeated until one candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote.
FairVote Minnesota, an advocacy group that supports IRV, is working to bring IRV voting to St. Paul and Duluth as well. Jeanne Massey, the group's executive director, says she'd like to see instant runoff voting someday in state elections.
"There is now great awareness about the need for runoff elections in our state contests that are highly competitive, because we have a strong third party presence in the Independence Party, and we no longer have majority winners in our high-stake elections," said Massey.
The Voters Alliance has said previously that it planned to appeal if it lost in Hennepin County Court.
Minneapolis The city of Minneapolis has cleared a major hurdle on its way to using instant runoff voting for city elections this fall. A Hennepin County judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking to halt the process.
The ruling comes in the midst of a lengthy recount and court case involving the U.S. Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who holds a 225-vote lead.
The ruling comes in the midst of a lengthy recount and court case involving the U.S. Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who holds a 225-vote lead.
Backers of IRV, which eliminates primary elections and allows voters to rank candidates for office in order of preference, have said the recount may have been avoided under their system of voting.
In 2006, Minneapolis voters approved the use of IRV by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, 65 percent to 35 percent. The Minnesota Voter's Alliance sued in an attempt to halt IRV from being used in Minneapolis elections, arguing that it's an impractical system that attracts large fields of candidates, which in turn makes it harder for third party candidates to get recognition.
In his ruling, Hennepin County District Judge McGunnigle wrote, "The City of Minneapolis has an important interest in respecting the democratic process, and the citizens of Minneapolis democratically voted for IRV by referendum."
McGunnigle added that the plaintiffs "have failed to demonstrate that IRV is either unconstitutional or contrary to public policy."
With IRV, voters rank all choices by preference on a single ballot. If no candidate gets a majority of votes, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated and those voters' second-choice votes are redistributed to the remaining field. The process is repeated until one candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote.
FairVote Minnesota, an advocacy group that supports IRV, is working to bring IRV voting to St. Paul and Duluth as well. Jeanne Massey, the group's executive director, says she'd like to see instant runoff voting someday in state elections.
"There is now great awareness about the need for runoff elections in our state contests that are highly competitive, because we have a strong third party presence in the Independence Party, and we no longer have majority winners in our high-stake elections," said Massey.
The Voters Alliance has said previously that it planned to appeal if it lost in Hennepin County Court.
Minneapolis The city of Minneapolis has cleared a major hurdle on its way to using instant runoff voting for city elections this fall. A Hennepin County judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking to halt the process.
The ruling comes in the midst of a lengthy recount and court case involving the U.S. Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who holds a 225-vote lead.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.