The Minnesota Supreme Court issued a decision in a case regarding a proposed charter amendment related to ranked choice voting in Bloomington. The decision means there will be no change in November’s municipal elections. Voters in Bloomington will use ranked choice voting to select city candidates on the ballot.
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By Mike Hanks, Community Editor
Bloomington will continue using ranked-choice voting for its city elections this fall, but voters will be limited to voting for three candidates per race as a result of an ordinance amendment approved by the Bloomington City Council. The amendment will also require write-in candidates seeking election to a council seat to register at the city clerk’s office at least seven days prior to the election.
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By Mike Hanks, Community Editor
Residents seeking a second-chance to vote on Bloomington’s use of ranked-choice voting for its municipal elections were rejected for the second time in three weeks, this time in Hennepin County District Court … “Petitioners marketed the proposed charter amendment as both an attempt to discard ranked-choice voting and as a scheme to preclude ordinary reconsideration of the issue. The latter is ultimately an overstep,” according to Moore’s ruling.
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By Mike Hanks, Community Editor
Residents seeking a second chance to vote on the use of ranked-choice voting in Bloomington’s municipal elections won’t get the opportunity to do so in November. A petition requesting another vote on a system that eliminates primary elections for Bloomington City Council races was deemed to be in violation of state law because of one caveat in the request: The petitioners wanted to set a higher bar for future approval of ranked-choice voting.
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By Karen Nobbe Stephens
Back in 2020, I voted on the Bloomington ballot for ranked-choice voting after doing some research online and in the local newspapers about it. I thought it had several advantages over the existing plurality voting system we currently had: Its efficiency, its basic simplicity and the fact that this type of system promotes building broad majority coalitions by candidates rather than catering to smaller political bases that often represent more immoderate views.
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By Robert Huber
I oppose the effort to repeal Bloomington’s ranked-choice voting ordinance. Bloomington voters approved the ordinance just two years ago, and it worked flawlessly in the first ranked-choice election last fall. Not only does it save taxpayers the cost of a primary election, but it encourages all candidates to appeal to a broad constituency, and leads to more civil elections. The issue was fully debated, and voters chose ranked-choice voting.
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Precinct caucuses are Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 7pm. It's a great opportunity to build support for Ranked Choice Voting (RCV)! Caucuses are run by the political parties, and attendees present resolutions for issues/ideas for the party to support (which could become part of the party platform).
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By Laura Calbone & Marcia Wattson
Thank you to every voter, candidate and election official who participated in Bloomington’s first City Council election using ranked-choice voting. We appreciate the many volunteers over the past four years who helped bring RCV to Bloomington and educate their neighbors about how to rank their ballots. We were excited to use RCV and thrilled that its benefits were realized.
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By Mike Hanks, Community Editor
When the dust settled days after voting closed in Bloomington’s first City Council race using ranked-choice voting, the end result looked much like it did after the initial vote tally on Election Day. Voters in Bloomington were able to rank the candidates on their ballots this year, and incumbents Nathan Coulter and Patrick Martin were both winners. With no incumbent in District 3, Lona Dallessandro won the seat.
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2021 is a historic year for Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in Minnesota. Bloomington, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, and St. Paul all used RCV for their municipal elections. Never before have we had five Minnesota cities conducting ranked-choice elections at the same time. These elections were among the more than 30 cities using RCV for local elections this year.
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By Chris Gabel
Election Day is almost here. This year Bloomington is using ranked-choice voting for its city council elections. As an election judge for the past five years, I know how few people voted in the primary in the past. Ranked-choice voting combines the primary and general into one election day in November when more people turn out to vote. I look forward to helping voters at the polls as they cast their first ranked-choice ballots. A few things for voters to keep in mind:
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By Steve Elkins, Rep. 49B
With this election, Bloomington will be helping to prove that ranked-choice voting is a practical and effective way to conduct elections in suburban cities, paving the way for the use of ranked-choice voting in school board elections, where it would be really helpful this year, and in legislative races and statewide elections under legislation which I have sponsored.
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By Lynn Lundeberg and Pat Meyer
This summer, we volunteered to provide voter education on ranked-choice voting at Bloomington events and door knock in preparation for the Bloomington City Council election this November. While we are involved in a lot of volunteer activities, we are especially inspired and excited about the positive impact RCV can have on our city and its residents.