Bloomington’s Ranked-Choice Election Success

Election data show Bloomington’s first municipal election using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) was a resounding success!

Voters Like RCV, Find it Simple, Want to Continue Using it

Edison Research conducted Election Day exit interviews of Bloomington voters and found:

• 77% found RCV simple to use, including 83% of voters of color

• 61% like and want to continue using RCV (10 points higher than when the RCV ballot measure passed), including 70.4% of voters of color

• 70% ranked their ballots

• 87% were satisfied with the candidate choices

• Fewer than 10% of voters felt candidates spent most of their time criticizing opponents. While we don’t have previous polling on this question, the fact that more than 90% of voters believed that candidates didn’t spend most of their time going negative on their opponents is hopeful in this time of increasing polarization and contentious campaigns. RCV helps combat negative campaigning because candidates must reach beyond their base for second- and third-choice votes and campaign toward a majority of voters. Negative attacks risk alienating an opponent’s supporters and their second- or third-choice votes. Indeed, Bloomington voters saw competing candidates campaign together, ask for second-choice votes from their opponents’ supporters, and temper their negative campaigning.

RCV Increases Voter Turnout

Compared to the last municipal election without a mayoral race (2017), turnout was slightly higher overall, and the two districts with competitive council races saw an even greater increase in turnout.

RCV Saves Tax Dollars 

The City Clerk reports that RCV saved Bloomington taxpayers more than $80,000 in 2021. Future savings are likely to be higher. 

Before RCV was adopted, the cost of each municipal primary was more than $100,000. RCV eliminates the need for the primary, saving the city, candidates and voters time and money. Because 2021 was the first year Bloomington used RCV, the city spent $3,300 on voter education and $15,000 on a one-time-only hand-count tabulation. This resulted in a first-year savings of more than $80,000. Savings will be even greater in future years as the city will use the faster and less expensive tabulation method used in the other Hennepin County cities with RCV elections. 

RCV Fosters Diversity

Bloomington’s 2021 municipal election had greater candidate diversity, in both demographics and political views. 

More than half of the candidates were women or people of color, and voters elected a woman and the first openly gay member to the open seat on the Bloomington City Council. By eliminating low-turnout, unrepresentative local primaries, RCV encourages a broad and diverse spectrum of candidates to run.

There was also a range of political diversity and nuance not often seen in recent municipal elections. The candidates spanned the political spectrum, from progressive to moderate to conservative. Voters ranked candidates as second or third choices who differed from their primary political beliefs but who they found acceptable. The opportunity to express non-binary political nuance in this way is why RCV is showing the promise of mitigating the kind of polarization that is hindering our democracy.

Sources:

• Secretary of State Election Results

• Bloomington City Clerk

• Edison Research in-person exit poll among 631 Bloomington voters in wards 3 and 4 using a weighted design to ensure an accurate representation of election day voters. The margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level for the full Bloomington sample of voters is +/-4.