Ranked-Choice Voting Appears To Survive Challenge In Minnetonka

MINNETONKA, MN — With all 21 city precincts reporting on Election Day, ranked-choice voting (RCV) appears to have survived a challenge in Minnetonka.

The RCV system was passed by Minnetonka voters in 2020, but a ballot question asked if voters wanted to have it repealed.

Residents were asked to vote "yes" or "no" on the following proposal to repeal RCV:

"Shall the Minnetonka City Charter be amended to repeal ranked choice voting as the method for electing the mayor and city council and reinstate the use of a primary (if needed) and general election?

Patch will provide live results Tuesday night as votes are tallied and reported by the Minnesota Secretary of State.

With 21 of 21 precincts reported in the municipality:

YES: 5,167 votes, 41.34 percent

NO: 7,332 votes, 58.66 percent

Local critics of RCV— which includes Mayor Brad Wiersum and former mayors Terry Schneider and Karen Anderson — argued that the method is costly to administer and confusing to voters.

"Regardless of your view of RCV, it is clear that a binary choice between two candidates is a simpler option," wrote Wiersum, Schneider, and Anderson in a joint plea to voters.

"Simplicity is important. Simplicity invites inclusion and participation. When voting is more complex, voters may lose interest and may drop out of the voting process before all steps are complete."

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They also argued that RCV devalues some votes through "exhausted ballots," and creates a "manufactured majority" rather than a simple majority.

Meanwhile, advocates for RCV argued that the method has helped voter turnout increase in the city and has ended the need for costly primaries.

"Prior to the adoption of RCV in 2020, Minnetonka required a city primary in August anytime there were more than two candidates on the ballot, and then held a second general election in November with the top two candidates from the primary," writes FairVoteMN.

"Minnetonka has held ten municipal primaries between 1985 and 2020, and without RCV, would have held two more primaries in 2021 and 2023, at an average cost of $50,000 each. Only a small percentage of the city's voters showed up to vote in those August primaries, typically only five percent, and that small number of Minnetonka voters would decide which candidates advanced to the general election ballot, preventing the larger voter pool in November from weighing in on all the candidates."