Bloomington Election Results and Hand Counts

According to city election officials, all three City Council races will require additional rounds of tabulation because none of the candidates met the “maximum possible threshold” to win with first-choice votes. As defined in the city’s Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) ordinance, the maximum possible threshold includes overvotes (when a voter selects more than one candidate as their first-choice) and undervotes (when a voter doesn’t select a first-choice candidate).

The maximum possible threshold exists to ensure that the outcome can't ultimately change after adjusting for over- and undervotes, mostly undervotes, which could be skipped rankings. If it's a skipped ranking, the second choice on the ballot will then count.

Hand Count Tabulation Begins Thursday

Starting at 9am on Thursday, 11/4 (in the Black Box Theater at City Hall), the city will begin hand counts - not the speedier spreadsheet method used in Minnetonka, St. Louis Park and Minneapolis (which will be done today). Bloomington could have used the spreadsheet method, but opted for a hand count process that the public would be able to witness in person. Both approaches are highly accurate and transparent, but a hand count is slower.

Why Election Results are Different on the City Website and Secretary of State Website

The Secretary of State (SOS) site does not include the overvotes and undervotes, so the percentage of votes reported on the SOS website is higher than those reported on the city’s website. The city uses the “maximum possible threshold” so the election officials have a greater assurance that the declared winner is truly the winner. In the hand counting process that begins tomorrow, all the over- and undervotes will be reviewed and if there is a second choice indicated, those ballots will count for that choice. The public is welcome to watch the hand counts in person.

For up-to-date election results, stay tuned to the city election results webpage and our Facebook page.

Voters are Already Winners

While winning candidates are yet to be determined, it’s clear that the biggest winners of yesterday’s local elections were the voters and the democratic process, thanks in large part to RCV. By eliminating the costly, low-turnout summer primary, voters only had to go to the polls once, and a larger, more representative segment of the community weighed in on a more diverse slate of candidates in a single election. In addition, RCV eliminates the anti-democratic factors of spoilers and wasted votes, incentivizes more civil and substantive campaigning, and holds winners accountable to a much broader constituency. 

Months of voter education and outreach by RCV Bloomington organizers and volunteers, along with the City Clerk’s office, ensured voters went to the polls prepared and excited to use the full power of their ballot on Tuesday. We conducted exit polling at multiple polling sites yesterday, and almost everyone reported that they ranked their ballots and that RCV was easy to use and understand.