Sabathani seniors showed how easy - and healthy -  Ranked Choice Voting can be in their first go at a ranked election Thursday morning, September 3rd, hosted by Council Member Elizabeth Glidden.

As a practice round for November 3rd, they held a mock election to decide their favorite breakfast item. They sampled and voted - ranked style - on muffins, sticky buns and fresh fruit.

Ranking came easily to this group of seniors, with no mismarked ballots. 

They were clear on their preference, too. Fruit topped out as the first choice favorite of 72% of the voters, winning with far more than a majority of votes in round one. It received 18 votes, muffins received 4 votes and sticky buns, 3 votes.

Jeanne Massey from FairVote Minnesota presented to the group about Ranked Choice Voting and how their votes will be counted this November.

This mock election was a good demonstration of what is possible in some of the upcoming races on the Minneapolis ballot November 3rd. Some of the single-winner races for mayor, council or park board district may be decided in the first round, with one candidate receiving a majority of first choice votes.  

Results for races that are won outright with a majority of first choices will be reported, as they always are, on a preliminary basis on Election Night.

This is an opportunity to remind voters that this year the City of Minneapolis will be conducting a hand count for this election.  Existing voting machines will be used at the polling locations to provide error notification if a voter makes a mistake on the ballot, to scan the ballots on election night and to tally first choices for all races. However, the equipment is unable to tally the results of races that require a runoff and a hand count will be conducted to provide official and final results for this first election. The city is currently developing the hand count procedures and should be releasing a report of these procedures and estimated timeline of the count in mid September. 

It is anticipated that new voting equipment will be in place for the next scheduled municipal Ranked Choice Voting election in 2013.