Ranked-choice voting played key role in Minneapolis City Council races
MINNEAPOLIS — Voters in the Twin Cities, along with several suburbs, saw ranked-choice voting when they went to the polls on Tuesday. It played a key role in several City Council races in Minneapolis.
There were three races for Minneapolis City Council where a candidate did not receive enough first-choice votes to win. It's in these cases where ranked-choice voting really comes into play.
Advocates say ranked-choice voting allows for more choice, while those against it say it's confusing.
"It's a no brainer," said Barb Westmoreland, co-chair of the "Vote No on Repeal on Ranked Choice Voting in Minnetonka."
Advocates say it allows for more voter choice, while those against it say it's confusing.
"Let's make voting simple again," said Ellen Cousins, chair of the "Yes to Repeal RCV" committee.
The repeal of ranked choice voting was on the ballot Tuesday in the city of Minnetonka. In the end, residents voted to keep it.
How does it work?
In the voting booth, voters can choose to rank candidates as their first, second or third choices, according to their preference. If a candidate gets more than 50% of the first-choice votes, they win outright.
RELATED: Here are the unofficial winners of Minneapolis' City Council races
If that doesn't happen, there's something called a runoff, where the person with the lowest number of first-choice votes gets eliminated and their vote totals are reallocated.
The second-choice votes are then counted and added to the vote totals of the remaining candidates.
The cycle continues until there's one candidate with more than half the vote or until there are no more candidates to eliminate.
One of those particularly close races was Ward 8 in Minneapolis where incumbent Andrea Jenkins trailed challenger Soren Stevenson in first-choice votes, but was declared the unofficial winner after full tabulation. She thanked voters online Wednesday, writing, "I'm ready to get back to working for you and our great city."
The Minneapolis canvassing board is meeting Monday to certify the election results.
Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park, Bloomington and Minnetonka all have ranked-choice voting.
Check out full election results at WCCO's Election Results page.