Minneapolis City Council decides on ranked-choice elections policy

The Minneapolis City Council voted this morning on logistics for adopting instant-runoff or ranked-choice voting in the city, but the ordinance cleared without unanimous support and only after significant debate on an amendment to count mismarked ballots.

Instant runoff lets voters rank candidates in order of preference. Council member Cam Gordon introduced an amendment that would continue counting a voter’s ballot if he or she skipped a ranking. For example, a ballot that ranks Candidate A first, Candidate B third and Candidate C fourth. Gordon’s amendment would assume the voter meant to mark the candidates first, second and third. “In my opinion it’s pretty clear, and it’s not a guessing game,” Gordon said.

The amendment eventually passed, but not without a warning from the city’s elections director, Cindy Reichert. “It assumes that we know what the voter meant,” Reichert said. She gave an example of a voter who marked Candidate A first and then only marked Candidate D fourth because “this is the last person I want.”

Council President Barbara Johnson and Council nenbers Sandy Colvin Roy and Lisa Goodman opposed the amendment. Council members Diane Hofstede and Don Samuels were absent.

“We’d make up the voter’s mind. It’s stunning to me,” Johnson said.

After the ordinance passed, the City Council gave city elections staff permission to release a request for proposals seeking elections equipment from venders that complies with the new ordinance. According to a referendum passed by voters in the city, officials are required to have instant-runoff voting in place by the 2009 city elections.