Ranked-Choice Voting must be rejected when it presents itself in Minnesota. Our republic deserves no less than our willingness to educate voters about this failed voting system and to resist misguided efforts like Sec. Simons who wants to expand this radical scheme to all Minnesota cities and counties.
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Secretary of State backs legislation to expand ranked choice voting option to all cities, counties
Traditionally, Democrats and left-wing groups have supported ranked choice voting while Republicans and conservatives have opposed the practice.
By Luke Sprinkel
The Office of the Secretary of State (OSS) has recommended that all cities, counties, and school districts be given the option to implement ranked choice voting in local elections.
In Minnesota, almost every election in the state is conducted with the first-past-the-post system. Simply put, this method of electing public officials dictates that the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Elections for statewide office, the legislature, and local offices have been conducted in this manner since Minnesota’s founding in 1858.
However, five Minnesota cities (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Minnetonka, and St. Louis Park) have adopted ranked choice voting in recent years as a method to elect their local officials.
In ranked choice voting, voters must rank candidates from their most preferred candidate to their least preferred candidate. For example, if there are five candidates for an office, voters will rank those candidates from first to fifth. Should no candidate receive a majority of first place rankings, the candidate with the least amount of first place finishes is out.
After that candidate is removed from the race, a runoff occurs between the remaining four candidates. Ballots that ranked the losing candidate first are recalculated with that ballot’s second choice as its first choice. This process repeats until one candidate wins a majority of first place rankings and is named the winner.
Traditionally, Democrats and left-wing groups have supported ranked choice voting while Republicans and conservatives have opposed the practice.
Currently, state law only allows charter cities with elections in odd-numbered years to use ranked choice voting. The practice is banned in even-numbered years because it conflicts with Minnesota’s normal, first-past-the-post system that is used in even-numbered years to elect public officials at every level of government throughout the state.
Given the complexities that come with ranked choice voting, major changes to state law would need to occur in order to have ranked choice voting and first-past-the-post voting occur at the same time.
Last week, Secretary of State Steve Simon recommended that such changes be made and an option for ranked choice voting be extended to all cities, counties, and school districts in Minnesota regardless of when those jurisdictions hold their elections.
Simon, the chief elections official in the state, is a Democrat.
Simon’s recommendation to the Minnesota Legislature
In 2023, Democrats in control of state government passed legislation which required the secretary of state to “conduct a study of issues related to voter engagement, education, and improvements to the election system, which can include but is not limited to assessing ranked choice voting.” The secretary was ordered to publish a report about that study.
That report, which was published on June 30, included the recommendation on expanding ranked choice voting in Minnesota.
According to the report, Simon’s office “supports the ability of all local jurisdictions to adopt [ranked choice voting] for local non-partisan contests, and supports the use of [ranked choice voting] in even-year elections with necessary statutory changes.”
In making this recommendation, the secretary’s office said it supports HF 683 which would expand ranked choice voting. That legislation, which is authored by Rep. Cedrick Frazier, would require any authorization or repeal of ranked choice voting to be decided by a ballot question put before the voters of that jurisdiction.
Simon’s report also recommended that the legislature appropriate money to the secretary of state’s office “to produce a statewide comprehensive voter information guide.”
Further, the report recommended that the legislature appropriate funds for voter education efforts and “modify use of the term ‘absentee’ in statute to ‘early in-person or mail voting’ to use more specific, voter-friendly terminology.”