By Eric Black
Published February 6th 2009 in Minn Post
The Mpls City Council yesterday voted to proceed with the plan to use Instant Runoff Voting in November. The vote, by 12-1, is the first action since a Hennepin judge in January threw out efforts to block the IRV experiment.
The Minnesota Voters Alliance, which opposes IRV and led that legal challenge, has appealed the ruling. The Minneapolis Council has asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to give the matter an accelerated review so the city will have a clean legal slate as it proceeds to November. The city is preparing a backup plan to hold a conventional election in case they don't have the green light from the courts.
Minneapolis voters approved, in a 2006 referendum, the idea of using IRV. St. Paul plans to ask its voters if they want to follow suit and FairVote Minnesota, the main organization promoting IRV has a long-range plan that it hopes will eventually lead to IRV for statewide elections.
The Minnesota Voters Alliance, which opposes IRV and led that legal challenge, has appealed the ruling. The Minneapolis Council has asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to give the matter an accelerated review so the city will have a clean legal slate as it proceeds to November. The city is preparing a backup plan to hold a conventional election in case they don't have the green light from the courts.
Minneapolis voters approved, in a 2006 referendum, the idea of using IRV. St. Paul plans to ask its voters if they want to follow suit and FairVote Minnesota, the main organization promoting IRV has a long-range plan that it hopes will eventually lead to IRV for statewide elections.
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.