SW Journal: A taste of Ranked-Choice Voting
Seventh Ward residents
got an early stab at ranked-choice voting. The election’s winners: Snickers and
Twix.
A few dozen Ward 7
voters last month got an early, very literal taste of
At July’s Lunch with
Lisa, Lisa Goodman’s monthly luncheon for constituents, the City Council member
hosted a mock ranked-choice voting (RCV) election. The goal: teach her
constituents how to use RCV and, in the process, learn which two candy bars are
the ward’s favorite.
Snickers? Baby Ruth?
Butterfinger? Twix?
(Download a pdf
detailing the candy bar voting and helping to explain Ranked-Choice voting.)
At the top of the
one-hour session, just five of about 40 attendees said they comfortably
understood RCV. That wasn’t a huge surprise — even Goodman said she wasn’t
initially fond of the voting method change.
But many more were
willing to give it a shot.
Frank Braun, an
81-year-old veteran election judge, said he wanted to understand what he’d
probably have to explain to voters in November. He was one of about two-thirds
of the attendees who said they knew very little about RCV going into the
luncheon.
“I still want to be a
part of it,” Braun said. “I want to be a part of a new experience.”
The free candy didn’t
hurt, either, he said while watching Snickers bars get strewn along his table.
“Now we’re getting some
payola,” he said.
After everyone ranked
their favorites — Braun picked Snickers No. 1, followed by Baby Ruth and
Butterfinger — nonprofit FairVote
In single-seat races, a
candidate wins when he or she gets 50 percent of votes plus one. If none
reaches that mark after one round of ballot-counting, the lowest vote-getter is
eliminated from every ballot. Voters who picked that person as their No. 1
instead have their second choices counted, a process that continues until
somebody hits the 50-plus-one mark.
As Massey spoke, a
couple dozen hands shot up.
People wanted to know
whether their No. 2 votes would count if their No. 1s weren’t eliminated. They
asked whether they had to vote for more than one candidate if they disliked the
other choices. They asked if one political party gets more out of RCV than
another.
Massey’s reply to each:
“No.”
Next, she moved on to
explaining multiple-seat races. When voters have to fill two or more seats with
choices from one group of candidates, the runoff process takes on a
mathematical, complex turn.
When one seat is filled
and that candidate has more votes than the threshold-plus-one mark, those
votes are split into
partial votes and reallocated to ballots’ second, and possibly third, choices.
A “Huh?” shot from the
audience.
“You just lost me!” a
voice exclaimed.
“You do what now?”
“What if —”
“Huh?”
Massey slowly walked
through the mathematics. She answered most questions. By the end of her
presentation, the confusion level seemed low.
Braun afterward said he
understood the process much more than he did before. He said he definitely
supported RCV.
“She did a very good
job. I’m not sure I could repeat it,” he said.
But what if while
you’re an election judge someone asks you to explain the process?
“Oh, God,” Braun said,
laughing and burying his hands in face. “Maybe I won’t want to be there!”
Reach Cristof Traudes
at 436-5088, ctraudes@mnpubs.com or twitter.com/sctraudes.
—
FYI
Educate yourself on RCV
For those who missed
Lunch With Lisa, there will still be numerous opportunities to practice or
learn about ranked-choice voting. Nonprofit FairVote
— National Night Out,
Aug. 4
— Lynnhurst Summer
Fest, 5:30–8:30 p.m. Aug.6,
—
— FairVote also is
expected to have information at each of the city’s farmers markets, as well as
at almost-daily Music in the Parks performances.
— Also in the works is
a citywide practice event on Sept. 15, what would have been