Prepared by FairVote Minnesota

In the 9/14/07 RCV Issues Group update, the Technical Advisory Committee recommended the formation of the Legislative & Rules Committee to prepare for the 2008 legislative session. It also recommended that the Technical Advisory Committee continue to meet to review equipment options for the implemenation of RCV in Minneapolis.

Legislative & Rules Committee

The Legislative and Rules Committee was formed to develop rules and procedures for conducting an RCV election in Minnesota and a legislative strategy for adopting these procedures into statute or into state or municipal rules. The committee has been meeting for two months and has an ambitious work plan to complete the work by the start of the 2008 legislative session in February.

The committee is composed of municipal and county election officials, legislators, organizational representatives from FairVote Minneosta, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Institute of Law and Politics, and citizens from various communities working on Ranked Choice Voting. The Committee meets bimonthly to review and consider key policy decisions relating to the rules and procedures for the conduct of a Ranked Choice Voting election.

A final report of RCV rules and procedures and recommendations for a 2008 legislative strategy will be ready by the end of January, 2008. Click here to see the meeting times and agendas through January.

Four legislative strategy options are being considered by the committee:

1) Propose detailed legislation to guide the conduct of RCV elections

2) Propose general legislation which delegates to the SOS Rule making authority for RCV

3) Propose legislation authorizing cities to pass ordinances with rules of conduct

4) Propose no legislation, and suggest cities develop their own ordinances

In the event that statutory or administrative rules for conducing an RCV election are introduced and not passed or approved in 2008, the City of Minneapolis can alternatively adopt the rules by city ordinance, as authorized by the Minneapolis City Council in 2006.

In addition to legislative strategy, another key issue that has emerged in the Legislative & Rules Commityee discussions is the flexibility of the RCV rules and procedures to allow for variations in the voting method for multi-seat elections.

The Legislative and Rules Committee is developing rules and procedures in accordance with Single Transferable Vote (of which single-seat IRV is a subcomponent) as necessitated by the adoption of this voting method in Minneapolis. At the same time, the City of Hopkins is considering an alternative form of ranked ballot voting for multi-seat elections and is advocating for flexibility in the rules and procedures to allow for variations, consistent with home-rule authority that permits cities to choose their voting system. The Committee will propose recommendations to address this issue.

Technical Advisory Committee

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is reviewing equipment options for the implementation of RCV in Minneapolis and is scheduling presentations and demonstrations by various vendors in November and December. Click here to see the options being reviewed.

The first vendor presentation will be by ES&S (the vendor of Minneapolis' current equipment) on November 27 at 10:00 am at the Minneapolis Elections Warehouse.

Notice will be provided of the other presentations by TrueBallot, Inc. Sequoia and Premier (formerly Diebold).

These meetings are open to the public. Please join us to see presentations and demonstrations of the IRV equipment systems under consideration for Minneapolis.

Contact Jeanne Massey at jeanne.massey@fairvotemn.org or 763-807-2550 for additional information.