Letter: Stay the Course, Bloomington
The Sept. 16 Star Tribune article on the effort to repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Bloomington missed the broader political context ("Bloomington to decide on ranked-choice voting for city races"). The push to overturn RCV in the state's fourth-largest city isn't just about whether Bloomington voters like the system they adopted in 2020 during a high-turnout presidential election.
The repeal effort is part of a nationwide campaign to ban or roll back RCV, similar to the opposition against abortion rights. RCV is banned in 10 Republican-controlled states, and the same Heritage Foundation-aligned groups that are challenging RCV in Alaska are now targeting Minnesota. After failing to repeal RCV in Minnetonka last year, they're now focusing on Bloomington.
Bloomington voters chose RCV because it works. In over 60 jurisdictions — from Maine and Alaska at the state level to New York City, Utah and the Bay Area locally — RCV gives voters more choice, promotes diverse candidates, boosts voter participation and leads to elected leaders who better represent their communities. Perhaps that's why RCV is on the ballot in four more states and Washington, D.C., this year.
RCV also saves money and hassle by eliminating unnecessary runoffs or primaries, saving Bloomington $100,000 every two years. RCV opponents, for reasons unclear — less turnout, fewer choices, less diversity? — want to bring back costly, lowturnout primaries and burden taxpayers.
I'll be voting “no” in November and urge my Bloomington neighbors to do the same. Let's keep RCV and advocate for the BCV local options bill, which nearly passed last session, to give all Minnesota jurisdictions the choice to adopt it.
Anita Smithson, Bloomington
The writer is a volunteer for RCV Bloomington.