Join Us this Weekend for Neighbor to Neighbor Outreach
09/30/2009
The City of Minneapolis Elections Department recently kicked off an
effort to educate voters about Ranked Choice Voting. One-on-one
communication with voters was really the best way to inform voters
about the new voting system.
We need your help to accomplish
this! We are looking for volunteers to help us educate your neighbors
about Ranked Choice Voting. Volunteers will receive training,
materials, and food.
All the
ballots are sorted and counted, and the first choice votes are tallied.
Any candidate who reaches the winning threshold is elected. If all of
the seats are not filled, all candidates who have no mathematical
chance of winning are eliminated. Votes for the eliminated candidates
are then redistributed to the voters’ next choices. Then, if all the
seats are still not filled, the election judges take the surplus votes
of the candidate who has the largest number of surplus votes and
redistributes those votes to the next choice candidate on those
ballots.
These “surplus” votes are allocated
proportionately to the remaining candidates according to the voters’
next choices. That proportion is calculated by dividing the number of
surplus votes the winning candidate received by the total votes for the
winning candidate. If all the seats are still not filled after the
surplus votes have been redistributed, the process of eliminating
candidates who have the lowest number of votes is repeated.
This process continues until all the seats are filled.
For Board of Estimate and Taxation, an election for 2 seats, a
candidate who receives 33% of the vote plus one vote is elected.
For Park Board At-Large, an election for 3 seats, a candidate who receives 25% of the vote plus one vote is elected.
In a race where 4000 votes are cast, the winning threshold for this election for 3 seats is 1,001 votes (4,000/4 + 1 vote)
Round 1 The total first-choice votes are counted and Lake Nokomis
wins in the first round. There are still two more seats that need to be
filled.
Round 2 Next we eliminate the candidate who has
no mathematical chance of being elected. Candidate Brownie Lake is
mathematically eliminated because it is impossible for him to get more
votes than the next higher candidate. The votes for Brownie Lake are
then redistributed to Lake Calhoun and Lake Hiawatha based on the
second choice on Brownie Lake’s ballots. Now Lake Hiawatha has enough
votes to win and only one seat is left to fill.
Round 3
Now we take the surplus votes of the candidate who has the largest
number of surplus votes and redistribute those votes to the next choice
candidate on those ballots. Both Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha have a
surplus because they both have more than 1,001 votes. In this case,
Lake Nokomis has the largest surplus, with 299 more votes than needed
to win. These surplus votes are proportionally redistributed to
remaining candidates based on the next choice on Lake Nokomis’ ballots
Lake Nokomis received 23 percent (299/1300) more votes than needed to
win, so 23 percent of each ballot cast for Lake Nokomis is
redistributed to the next choice on that candidate’s ballots. When the
votes are redistributed, Lake Calhoun goes over the threshold and all
three seats have been filled. Lake Nokomis, Lake Hiawatha, and Lake
Calhoun are the three winners.
The City of Minneapolis Elections Department recently kicked off an effort to educate voters about Ranked Choice Voting. One-on-one communication with voters was really the best way to inform voters about the new voting system.
We need your help to accomplish this! We are looking for volunteers to help us educate your neighbors about Ranked Choice Voting. Volunteers will receive training, materials, and food.
The counting procedures work differently under a ranked choice voting election. A hand count will be required in all races to obtain the official results.
The process for counting a single seat office, like mayor, is slightly different from how a multi-seat office, like park board at large, is counted.
Counting single seat office elections
(Mayor, City Council Members, and Park Board District Commissioners)
All the ballots are sorted and counted, and the first choice votes are tallied. If no candidate receives the required number of votes to win, the winner is selected through a series of rounds. First, candidates who received the lowest number of votes are eliminated. Next, voters who cast votes for eliminated candidates will have their votes redistributed to their next choice.
For single seat offices, a candidate who receives 50% of the vote plus one vote is elected. If there are only two candidates left and neither has 50% plus one, the candidate with the most votes is elected.
In a race where 3,000 votes are cast, the winning threshold is 1,501 votes (3000/2 + 1 vote)
Round 1: The total first choice votes are counted and none of the candidates have received a majority of the votes cast.
Round 2: Since no candidate reached the threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and votes for this candidate are redistributed based on the voters’ second choices. That means that candidate Wirth is eliminated and 250 of his votes are redistributed to candidate Matthews and another 250 to candidate North Commons. Again, none of the candidates have received a majority of votes, and we move to the next round.
Round 3: Candidate Matthews has the fewest number of votes and is eliminated. All 950 of candidate Matthews’ votes are redistributed to the next choice on those ballots, candidate North Commons. Now candidate North Commons has received a majority of votes cast and is the winner.
Feel free to use this article in your newsletters and emails:
On November 3, 2009, voters in Minneapolis will be able to rank their choices for Mayor, City Council, Board of Estimate and Taxation, and Park and Recreation Board when they go to the polls on Election Day.
This fall will be the first time that Minneapolis voters will be using this new voting method. Minneapolis is making the change because voters approved using Ranked Choice Voting for municipal elections by referendum in 2006.
This new voting process will combine the Primary and General Elections into a single election, so there is no primary this year. All the candidates that filed for the election will appear on the November ballot.
How to Vote Much like the current method, voters will vote by filling in an oval on a paper ballot. Instead of just marking one candidate on the ballot, voters will be able to rank up to three candidates for the same office. However, voters are not required to rank more than one candidate. Voters will mark their first choice by filling in the oval next to the candidate’s name in the column that says first choice, then a different candidate for their second choice, and a different candidate for their third choice.
It is important to remember that you vote the same way whether you are voting for a single seat race like Mayor or a multi-seat race like, Parks and Recreation Board at-large.
How votes are counted The counting process begins by sorting and counting the first choice votes for all candidates. If no candidate receives the required number of votes to win, a process of eliminating candidates and considering subsequent ranked choices begins. Under Ranked Choice Voting, a voter’s second and third choice cannot harm a voter’s first choice because election officials will not count a voter’s second or third choice unless the voter’s first choice has already been eliminated.
For additional information visit www.voteminneapolis.org or ask a question about Ranked Choice Voting by calling 311.
Ranked Choice Voting means all candidates will be on the ballot in November
Tomorrow, Sept. 15, voters will turn out to vote in municipal primaries throughout the metro area. However, there will be no Primary in Minneapolis. That’s because this year, Minneapolis will use a new voting method called Ranked Choice Voting.
This new voting method combines the Primary and General Elections into a single election so there is no Primary and all candidates appear on the November ballot. On November 3, voters in Minneapolis will be able to rank their choices for Mayor, City Council, Board of Estimate and Taxation, and Park and Recreation Board.
Minneapolis is using Ranked Choice Voting as result of a referendum that voters passed in 2006. Much like the current system, voters will vote by filling in an oval on a paper ballot. What’s new is that voters can also mark a different 2nd and 3rd choice candidate on the same ballot, in the columns just to the right of a voter’s first choice.
Since Ranked
Choice Voting is a new voting process in Minneapolis, voter education
will be key to making Election Day run smoothly. We need your help
with these voter education efforts! The RCV Outreach Coordinators are
looking for volunteers to be part of the RCV Speakers Bureau. Members
of the Speakers Bureau will present on RCV to neighborhood meetings,
community festivals, PTA meetings and many other events. If you would
like to be a part of this important effort, attend one of our
trainings.
The final RCV speakers bureau training will be Tuesday September 15 from 6-7:30 at North Regional Library (1315 Lowry Ave. N.)
