Politics in Minnesota: Big win for FairVote Minnesota
In a big win for Fair Vote Minnesota,
supporters of Instant Runoff Voting (also known as Ranked Choice
Voting) secured the role of their preferred electoral style with a very favorable ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson,
IRV's role in this November's election in Minneapolis got approved.
Since, of course, the DFL dominates Minneapolis politics, this could
let marginalized urban conservatives and independents efficiently
consolidate their votes around more conservative candidates. On the
other hand, it also frees those to the left of the DFL mainstream to
vote for Greens and other lefties, and then safely set a second choice
for a liberal DFLer.
It also seems likely this
would spur more IRV-based local elections statewide, opening up a whole
new field for moderates that could appeal to the general public, rather
than the partisan activists that dominate local endorsement processes.
A key point the justices considered: Minneapolis elections are already
non-partisan two-round runoffs: the primary selects the top two
vote-getters, then the general election determines the winner. The
justices concluded that IRV just condenses this process. Below the
fold, a bit more from the ruling.