Letter: Ranked Choice Voting for a Truly Representative Democracy

Submitted (unpublished) Letter to the Editor, Bloomington Sun Current

The City of Bloomington held a primary on August 8 for two seats on the City Council. A mere 6.6% of eligible voters turned out to make this decision that will affect all citizens of Bloomington. It’s time to eliminate the low-turnout, high-cost primary in local, off-year city elections and move toward truly representative democracy by implementing Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).

RCV ensures that the will of the majority prevails by allowing voters to rank their preferences. If no candidate receives a majority of first choice votes, then an “instant runoff” proceeds, eliminating the candidate with the least number of first-choice votes. Ballots for that candidate are then reallocated to the remaining candidates based on their second choice on those ballots. This process is repeated until one candidate reaches the winning majority threshold.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have proven that RCV is simple to use. Hennepin County has the template to implement RCV, so making this change would be relatively simple and would save money.

The League of Women Voters of Minnesota endorses state and local options to choose instant run-off voting for a number of compelling reasons:

• This method gives voters more choice on the ballot in November when turnout is highest and most diverse, so a more representative swath of voters are electing our city leaders.

• Voters are empowered to vote their conscience without worrying about the so-called “spoiler” effect.

• Leaders elected under this method are accountable to more of their constituents.

• Campaigns become less divisive, more focused on sensible discussions and realistic proposals for solving problems. Why? Because candidates behave better when they have to court second-choice votes.

Marcia Wattson, Bloomington