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Here is a shuffle of ballots Submitted photo
Recently there’s been a lot of buzz about ranked-choice voting, with people saying it offers us a way out of the polarization and gridlock in government. But if you ask people, “Do you know about ranked-choice voting?” you’ll probably get a hesitant reply. “I’ve heard of it, I think … but I don’t really understand it.”
Ranked-choice voting is simply a slightly different way of conducting elections. It’s not new — it’s been used in other countries (Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) for decades. And more and more people in Cook County are hearing about it because it’s gaining popularity both in Minnesota and nationwide. Multiple cities in Minnesota are now using ranked-choice voting for their local elections, along with dozens of other cities across America. And the states of Maine and Alaska are now using it statewide to elect the president and their senators, representatives, and governors.
But how is it different from how we currently run elections? We talked to Charles Hathaway, who lives in Grand Marais. Charles has spoken to thousands of Minnesotans about ranked-choice voting. He explains. “In an ordinary election, you are only allowed to say, ‘I like this person, or I like that person.’ With ranked-choice voting, you get to say a lot more: ‘I like this person the most, but if he or she couldn’t win, I’d want this other person. And if neither of them could win, here’s my third choice, etc.’ So, you rank the candidates according to your preference: first choice, second choice, and third choice.”
Katie Humphrey
But isn’t that complicated or confusing? Charles laughs. “At county fairs, we had people ‘voting’ for their favorite type of candy. People catch on right away. Six-year-old kids had no problem filling out rankedchoice ballots, indicating their first, second, and third favorites — with Tootsie Roll, Starbursts, and caramels as the candidates!”
OK, fine, maybe it’s not difficult for the voter. But why change from the voting system we’ve always used? To answer that question, I spoke with Grand Marais native Katie Humphrey. Katie works with FairVote MN, the non-partisan non-profit advocating for better government through ranked-choice voting.
Charles Hathaway
Katie explained, “If there are only two candidates in an election, of course, you don’t need ranked-choice voting. But when there are three or more candidates, the vote may be fairly evenly split. So in an ordinary election, you can end up with someone winning with only 30-40 percent of the votes. That’s a little crazy because maybe you are putting someone into office who 60 percent or more of the voters actually dislike!”
“The advantage of ranked-choice voting is that it lets you find out right away which candidate has the broadest support and put that person into office. It’s sometimes called ‘instant runoff voting because if no candidate turned out to be the first choice of the majority of the voters, you can, in effect, have a runoff election — instantly — by looking at second-choice votes. And just like with an actual runoff election, you’ll find out who really has majority support.”
To explain, Charles chimed in. “Suppose that in a ‘candy election,’ 38 percent of the voters liked caramels best, 42 percent loved Starburst the most, and 20 percent listed Tootsie Rolls as their first choice.
No candy had majority support. Rats! But not to worry — we can do a “runoff” election without calling everyone back to the polls. With ranked-choice voting, we eliminate the least-popular candidate (sorry Tootsie Rolls!) — and re-allocate votes to the remaining two candidates, based on the second choices of the Tootsie Roll voters.”
“So if, say, 75 percent of the Tootsie Roll voters had listed Starburst as their second choice, those votes go to Starburst. In this way, Starburst is seen clearly to be the most popular among the three candidates and becomes the winner. With ranked-choice voting, the candidate with the most support always wins.”
Jeanne Massey, statewide director of FairVoteMN, added, “Ranked-choice voting lets you vote for the candidate you truly prefer, without worrying that your vote will be wasted — or worse, will help elect the candidate that you like the least! This ‘spoiler dynamic’ leads to political shenanigans like we saw in Minnesota in 2020, which are unfair to voters. Another huge benefit of ranked-choice voting is that it pushes candidates to reach out to all the voters — not just their base — and build broad coalitions so they can win and be re-elected. It also has the benefit of discouraging the nasty negative campaign ads that nobody likes! Best of all, the end result is that we get better government.”
Unfortunately, Cook County communities such as Grand Marais are currently prohibited by law from using ranked-choice voting. But Jeanne noted that there is presently a ranked-choice voting bill making its way through the Minnesota state legislature. That bill would give local units of government the freedom to use ranked-choice voting if they wish and would allow Minnesotans to use ranked-choice voting to elect our governor and national representatives.
Are you interested in learning more? Katie suggests that you check out FairVoteMN.org. “It’s a great website!” she added.
(Disclaimer: Charles notes that none of this is a product endorsement for any of the candies mentioned. In fact, his favorite is Peanut M&Ms, but unfortunately, they weren’t on the ballot!)
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