Two Different Kinds of Ranked Choice Voting
Minneapolis adopted Ranked Choice Voting or RCV for City elections in 2009. There have been plenty of articles explaining Ranked Choice Voting. Enough that you might question whether you need another. But, wait. Do you know that there are two distinctly different versions of Ranked Choice Voting on your Minneapolis ballot this fall? And they look almost exactly the same? The outcome of your vote is determined by your understanding of the difference.
There are five elections in total. Three are of the relatively straightforward with one single person winning (Mayor, Council, and Park Board District). Two are of the much more complex, with multiple winners from one vote (Park Board-At Large and Board of Estimate and Taxation.) Note the one word difference in the black banner.
Single Winner Ranked Choice Voting
The single winner elections are relatively straightforward. The Mayor (top of the ballot) is a good example. You rank three choices, one in each column on the ballot. Then the Minneapolis Elections office totals the votes for each candidate. If no candidate reaches the 50+% threshold needed to win they eliminate the candidate with the least votes and then allocate those votes to the 2nd or 3rd choices marked on that ballot. This continues until either one candidate crosses the 50+% threshold or only two candidates remain. The candidate with the most votes wins. Relatively straightforward.
Multi-Winner Ranked Choice Voting
Multi winner elections are very complex in comparison. Which elections are the multi winners? Those are the Board of Estimate and Taxation and Park and Recreation Commissioner At-Large. See the second page of the ballot. (and remember to turn over your ballot when you vote…)
There are two significant differences between the single winner and the multi winner versions. One is the way you vote, and the other is the way your vote is counted. To illustrate, I will use as an example the election for the Park and Recreation Commissioner At Large.
Three candidates will be elected from one ranking that looks exactly the same as the single winner Mayor where only one candidate will be elected. Therein lies the potential pitfall for voters.
The key to understanding the multi winner difference is that unlike the single winner, a voter doesn’t have three 1st choices plus ability to rank two additional candidates for each of the three open seats. Instead, a voter only has one ranking of three choices, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd from which three candidates will be elected.
Because all three choices could win election for At Large Commissioner, a voter is better off thinking about candidates as best, better and good choices because the voter wants all three to be elected. In a single winner, while the ballot ranking looks exactly the same, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices result in only one person elected.
The takeaway is a voter in multi winner elections should vote for at least as many different candidates as there are seats available – with a different candidate in each of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices.
Things Not to Do in Multi-Winner Ranked Choice Voting
Some voters will vote for a single candidate without ranking any others. This can work in a single winner election. However, in this multi winner example those voters will forfeit the opportunity to have their vote counted for the election of two of the three at-large seats.
Other voters have the strategy to vote for the same candidate as their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices thinking the strategy will enhance the chance of their preferred candidate to be elected to one of the three available seats. This strategy will fail as the elections office will invalidate the 2nd and 3rd choices. So again, these voters will forfeit the ability to impact the election of two of the three available seats.
Counting Multi-Winner Ranked Choice Voting
The second significant difference with multi winner elections is how the Minneapolis Elections office counts the vote. This portion of the article has no bearing on how you should vote but you should understand it.
In the Mayor single winner example, the winner has more than 50% of the vote or at least a plurality. However, in multi winner elections, the winners will have only the exact number of votes needed to reach the winning threshold. In the case of our At Large election, this means the winning threshold will be exactly 25% of the total vote plus 1 vote. Any votes beyond that threshold for one candidate are considered “surplus votes”. How is that threshold determined? Think of it this way – 3 candidates are each elected with 25% plus one vote – the remaining votes total less than 25% meaning no additional candidates can be elected.
You may ask, “how can this be?”. Because the Minneapolis Elections office will do a proportional redistribution of the “surplus votes” to 2nd and 3rd choice candidates. You may ask, who are those lucky 2nd and 3rd choice candidates? Those candidates and their proportion are determined when the Elections office looks at all the ballots cast for the winning candidate and totals the votes for each 2nd choice (3rd choice if the 2nd choice has been eliminated in previous rounds). The ratio each 2nd choice candidate receives to the total vote for the winning candidate is then allocated to that 2nd choice candidate remaining on the ballot. This likely results in votes fractionally split between the remaining candidates.
The elimination of the lowest vote getter and proportional redistribution of the winners’ surplus votes continues until three At Large candidates have reached the winning threshold of 25% plus one vote.
It’s complex. Here is a link to a very good, short and easy to follow video by MPR, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNxwMdI8OWw
Conclusion
While the vote counting process is confusing, remember that the important thing is to vote for three different Park Board At Large candidates and at least two different Board of Estimation candidates. Do so and you will have impact on the outcome of all 5 of those available seats.
Ranked Choice Voting Resources
The City’s RCV website: https://vote.minneapolismn.gov/ranked-choice-voting/details/
A resource the City elections office recommends. https://www.rcvresources.org/blog-post/multi-winner-rcv
Thank you for this illuminating article. It’s amazing that after nearly 20 years of ranked choice, the complexities and different types of RCV still need to be explained. It’s also troubling that RCV for multi-winner races like Park Board At Large and BET is so hard to explain, given that they’re ALSO low-information races. The combination of low information and complicated voting methodology is a big problem and suggests we should move to a simpler system.