Ranked Choice Voting allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot according to their preference - 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc. Voters cast their vote for their favorite candidate knowing that if he or she doesn't gather enough votes to win, their vote will count toward their second choice. In a single-winner election, votes cast for the least popular candidate are not "wasted", but rather redistributed to more popular candidates, based on the voters' second choices, until one candidate wins with a majority of votes.
Minneapolis voters approved a charter amendment in 2006 by a nearly two-to-one margin mandating the use of Ranked Choice Voting for municipal elections. The first opportunity for Minneapolis voters to use RCV was in the November 2009 elections. The implementation was a huge success, with 95 percent of polled voters and 97 percent of people of color reporting they found it easy to use. This year will be the first time the city has used RCV for a wide-open mayoral contest with multiple contenders.
This Nov. 5, Minneapolis voters will use ranked choice voting to elect a mayor, City Council members, members of the Park and Recreation Board, and the Board of Estimate and Taxation.
St. Paul is preparing for its second election using Ranked Choice Voting, after the highly successful 2011 implementation, and voters in the city’s Ward 1 will have the chance to rank city council candidates on their ballots. Often called “the heart of St. Paul,” Ward 1 includes the Thomas-Dale (Frogtown) and Summit-University neighborhoods.
Voting for Saint Paul City Council has changed since the 2011 election. Instead of the traditional voting method, voters will use Ranked Choice Voting to elect members to the city council.
MULTIPLE SEAT ELECTIONS
How Instant Runoff Voting works 2.0: Multiple winners.
Some say these methods will save tax payer's money by removing the need for run-off elections.
What do you think about these methods of voting and how they are counted?
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us 
No comments:
Post a Comment