Supporters of Ham Lake Mayor and Senate District 49 candidate Paul Meunier sampled the sweet taste of electoral reform on Saturday, May 22, at a house party and Ranked Choice Voting demo election. Guests voted 1, 2, 3 to help elect the best dessert of the evening. Saturday’s gathering was hosted by Jennifer and Mark Dietz; click here for more details.

A total of 20 ballots were cast for Rice Krispie Bars, Special K Bars and Brownies. Brownie led in round 1, with 9 first-choice votes. But 11 votes were needed to win so the election went to an "instant" runoff. Special K was the least popular candidate with just 4 votes and so was eliminated and these ballots were reassigned to the remaining two candidates based on the second preference on those ballots. With a strong alliance between Special K and Rice Krispies, all of the Special K ballots went to Rice Krispie, making Rice Krispie the clear preference of the majority of the party guests.

Results

20 total ballots were cast, 11 were needed to win.

                            Round 1                 Round 2

                           1st choices          Transfer    Total

Brownie                     9                       9              9

Rice Krispie Bar          7                    + 4             11

Special K Bar             4                     - 4

Under current plurality-take-all elections, a candidate can win even if that candidate is not preferred by a majority of voters. RCV ensures winning candidates have the affirmed support of a majority of voters.

“Democracy works best when the will of the people is served by someone obtaining more than 50 percent of the vote,” Meunier says. “No elected person or candidate should ever be afraid of securing the majority of votes to earn their seat. It’s that simple.” 

Demonstration elections are a fun, easy, and effective way to educate people about how RCV works; contact FairVote Minnesota if you’d like to host an RCV demo election or conduct an online RCV election.