While Minnesota legislators are clamoring to adopt statewide Ranked Choice Voting and to allow every city in the state to run future municipal elections via RCV, Alameda County, California provides a cautionary tale about what can and did happen in a local election.
Two months after the election and after officials certified another candidate as the winner of a school board race, an audit found that the third-place finisher (and incumbent school board member) actually won the race.
At a time when voters are demanding greater transparency and accountability in election result tabulation, Ranked Choice Voting provides neither.
As a result of the Alameda County election snafu, the Oakland NAACP is demanding a manual recount of the election for mayor – another race decided by only 677 after nine rounds of RCV tabulation.
You can learn more about the risks to our free and fair elections that accompany Ranked Choice Voting by reading the latest report from the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota on its perils and pitfalls by clicking here.
