Steve Brandt, November 4, 2009

Most voters adapted to the new system with ease. But now the hand-counting begins in races without a clear winner. Now the waiting starts for candidates as hand-counting begins of ranked-choice votes in races where first choices don't indicate a clear winner.

Minneapolis voters seemed to adjust to ranked-choice voting with relative ease on Tuesday, even if many didn't use all three choices the new voting method allows.

"They're more prepared than I expected them to be," Luanne Nyberg, chief election judge at King Park in south Minneapolis, said Tuesday morning. Turnout in her precinct was about half that of the last city election in 2005. Only two among the first 55 voters in her precinct made ballot errors. One voter caught her own, the ballot scanner caught the other, and both filled out fresh ballots.

"The voters by and large knew what to do upon entering," said Jeanne Massey, executive director of FairVote Minnesota, which advocated the change in voting approved by Minneapolitans in 2006. City interim election director Patrick O'Connor agreed that the changeover from traditional voting went well.

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