September 1, 2006

• Single Transferable Voting in Minneapolis

  There is a voting reform referrendum in Minneapolis this year:

  A Proposal to use Instant Runoff Voting in Minneapolis Elections

  Should
  the City of Minneapolis adopt Single Transferable Vote, sometimes known
  as Ranked Choice Voting or Instant Runoff Voting, as the method for
  electing the Mayor, City Council, and members of the Park and
  Recreation Board, Library Board, and Board of Estimate and Taxation
  without a separate primary election and with ballot format and rules
  for counting votes adopted by ordinance?

  So, the big question is, what is Single Transferable Voting?

  Part of a definition from wikipedia:
  “The Single Transferable Vote, or STV, is a preferential voting system
  designed to minimise wasted votes and provide proportional
  representation”. Here’s a quick overview of how it works:

  To the voter who just wants to know how to vote:
  

  Rank
  the candidates on the ballot in your order of preference. You do not
  need to rank all of them – any candidates you don’t wish to see
  elected, you do not have to vote for.

  To those wondering how the ballots are counted:

  1. Determine the threshold of votes required to win a seat.
  2. Tally
     the votes. Any candidates receiving more than the threshold have gained
     the seat. If all the seats are filled, you are done. If not, go to step
     3.
  3. If no candidates received over the threshold, go to step 4.
     If a candidate received over the threshold, transfer the excess portion
     of their votes to the next choice on the ballots then return to step 2.
     Any ballots without a next choice become exhausted.
  4. Eliminate
     the candidate with the lowest number of votes. Transfer their votes to
     the next choice on the ballots. Any ballots without a next choice
     become exhausted. Go back to step 2.

  Definitions and Math:

  “Threshold of votes”

  The number of votes required to win a seat.
  Calculated as: [(number of votes)/(number of seats + 1)] + 1

  “Excess Portion of”

  The
  amount of the vote not needed to elect the candidate. If a candidate
  got 20% more total votes than they needed, 20% of each of their votes
  is “excess” and available for transfer.
  Calculated as: (Votes received – Votes needed) / Votes received

  “Transfer”

  Any
  portion of a ballot not yet used to elect someone can be used to elect
  the next choice. The next choice is based on a numerical ranking. If a
  number is missing, it is skipped over (eg: 1,2,3,4 is equivalent to
  1,2,4,5)

  “Exhausted”

  A ballot that can be transfered
  but has no candidates chosen that have not either been elected or
  eliminated. This is functionally equivalent to voting in a primary but
  choosing not to vote in the general because there are no acceptable
  candidates remaining.

  What it does:

  • Eliminates the “spoiler” factor for single and multi-seat elections
  • Eliminates the need for primaries in single seat and multi-seat elections
  • Ensures proprtional representation in multi-seat elections.

  It is also expected that it will:

  • Improve campaign tactics as negative campaigning will be more likely to backfire.
  • Improve
    discussions of issues among politians as undermining your opponent will
    be less effective so you’ll have to distinguish yourself by your issues.
  • Decrease
    the municipal costs of an election due to the elimination of the
    primary. This will be offset for a period of time by the initial costs
    of implementation.
  • Improve voter participation by giving more
    reason to show up for the general because there is a broader choice of
    people to vote for and there are no reason not to vote for the
    candidate you support most.

  The other two terms:
  Ranked Choice Voting: Any form of voting where you rank the candidates in the order of your support.
  Instant
  Runoff Voting: Another term for Single Transferable Voting when it is
  used for single seat positions (Mayor as opposed to the Library Board)

  Please vote YES in November.

  • 3:54 pm
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