by Hank Long
Despite the fact that few people attended a ranked choice voting press conference at the Minnesota Capitol on Thursday, DFL legislators and paid RCV advocates expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of passing a bill that would implement their favored system of determining representation in the legislature and for statewide office.
State Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, and State Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, have introduced a bill they’re calling the “Protect and Advance Democracy Act” that would make Minnesota a ranked choice voting state by 2026.
“I and a huge coalition of Minnesotans believe we need this bill,” Morrison said. “Ranked choice voting is the best step we can take to reduce extremism and political division.”
SF2270/HF2486 would implement the ranked choice voting system in all state legislature and statewide elections, and give local units of government the ability to pass their own laws and ordinances to enact ranked choice voting. It would also create a ranked choice voting implementation task force to help elections officials “on-ramp” the new system of voting and educate the populace on how RCV works in an election and what a RCV ballot looks like. Members of the task force would include representatives from several organizations that advocate for underrepresented minorities and civic organizations like the League of Women Voters, according to a provision in the bill.
The bill has been referred to elections committees in the House and Senate, but hearing dates haven’t been scheduled.
The ranked choice voting movement in Minnesota has been pushed for the last several years by FairVote Minnesota, which raised nearly $1 million in 2020 for campaigning and outreach activities to promote RCV. Its executive compensation expenses have tripled over the last four years. Some of FairVote Minnesota’s prominent donors include Kathryn Murdoch, daughter-in-law to media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Democrat pollster with Walz ties says Minnesotans favor RCV
While FairVote Minnesota executive director Jeanne Massey said that a newly-released poll of Minnesotans shows that 64 percent are in favor of implementing ranked choice voting statewide, she failed to mention that top staff for the pollster, Expedition Strategies, are former campaign staff members for prominent DFL politicians, like former U.S. Senator Al Franken and Gov. Tim Walz. Just last year, Walz publicly endorsed ranked choice voting.
Expedition Strategies lists the Walz campaign as one of its clients and received $30,000 from the Minnesota DFL Party in late 2021.
While more than three dozen DFL legislators signed on to the bill in the House, just four DFLers are listed as co-sponsors in the Senate (where the DFL has a one-vote majority).
Republicans in the Senate blasted the proposed legislation, saying that ranked choice voting undermines trust in the election process and is a solution in search of a problem.
“Our election system has worked for generations ensuring every vote cast for a candidate is included in the final vote in a simple and fair counting of the ballots,” said Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch. “Ranked Choice Voting removes the assurance and transparency we have come to expect from our elections. Valid ballots may cease to be counted based on who they voted for during the various cycles of counting, and that’s not fair to those voters.”
Recent elections by RCV in Minnesota haven’t really changed candidate quality or reduced negative campaigning like the advocates say it would, said Koran, who serves as the top-ranked Republican on the Senate Elections Committee. “RCV is more likely to provide a winner who earned less than a majority of votes, and everybody’s third choice may not be the best choice.”
The Foundation for Government Accountability, a vocal opponent of ranked choice voting, says the system is a “disaster in disguise,” because it “ needlessly complicates the voting system, leading to voter confusion, lower turnout, and slower election results.”
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Hank Long is a reporter at AlphaNews.org.
Photo “Cedrick Frazier” by Representative Cedrick Frazier. Photo “Kelly Morrison” by Minnesota State Senate. Background Photo “Election Day” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.
This is a good idea, it allows voters to describe their preferences better, using single election. As opposed to having to vote again if there is no winner in the first round. One important consequence is ability to elect independent candidates, who would be otherwise shunned out of fear of wasting a vote.
NO Ranked voting another way to rig for Dems to win, see Alaska
Bad idea. There are too many negatives and no obvious positives.
Poor article as the average reader does not have a clue as to what ”Ranked
choice” votes actually is. Until the public knows, then it is just filling up space on the column.
Can Minnesota ever get ANYTHING right? This is another indication that the answer is a resounding NO. Minnesota is politically hopeless.
the dems support it, uh oh!
i’m against !
THE ONE WITH THE MOST VOTES WINS-NO RANKING
This is not American and will only cause the voters not to come out to vote or to support candidates. It’s terrible
This is an abomination and should never be approved in any free society. These people are only. Pushing this because they know they can load the elections with people who are unelectable any other way than by cheating! This is cheating and is only being done to defraud the voters of Minnesota!
Don’t Pass That Crap Unless You Want Unwanted Winners. Just a Democrat Racket to force a Scummy POS on you.
I don’t like the changes in Ranted Choice. It’s got the losers deciding who the winners will be and that’s a decision the voters need to make.
Sounds like it could be easily be corrupted by programmers, or hacked to change the votes
Just more BS from the Democrats
This is a bunch of crap,made up by the commie dumbocraps. This is as bad as mail=in=voting, where there can be all kinds of fraud,just ask the the dumbocraps.This ranked ballot voting BS, and needs to thrown out completely, it’s just another way they like to cheat,in electing someone.