There are 16 people running for city council in St. Cloud. There are three seats to be chosen, and you will be able to vote for up to three candidates. We will hold a primary election on Aug. 13, and the top six will advance to the main election on Nov. 5, along with the presidential, federal and state elections.
In 2020, there were nine candidates who went to the primary in the St. Cloud City Council race.
Our current type of voting is called "first past the post" (FPTP), which comes from horse racing in English whereby the first horse to reach the post is declared the winner. This system is also called "winner take all." This is a popular form of voting, but a person can win with only 40 percent of the vote, and without a majority behind him or her. It seems likely that the third-highest vote-getter in the 2020 City Council race did not receive a majority of votes cast.
We recently saw FPTP play out in British elections on July 4. There, a new government formed that got more than 60% of the seats with less than 34% of the votes cast. French elections last weekend did it differently, holding a two-stage election like ours but allowing any party with enough votes to reach a cutoff into the second round. There, strategic behavior between the second and third-place parties from the first round allowed them to leap over the first-round winner, by withdrawing candidates where they were likely to hurt each other’s chances of winning the seat.
Of course, municipal elections in Minnesota are non-partisan, so we could not have a French-style voting system. But some municipalities such as Minneapolis and even the states of Alaska and Maine, are changing to Ranked Choice Voting. Some people feel this allows people's views to be better reflected and represented.
One advantage is that you only have to vote once. But what you have to do, when there, is to rank your candidates. With these types of systems, voters never have to return to polls when there is a runoff election.
Instead, you get an ‘instant runoff’. If you have four candidates for a position that can be won by a single person, you rank them 1, 2, 3 and 4. If one candidate gets a majority of the 1s, the race is over. If, however, nobody has 50%, the candidate with the least number of 1s is eliminated and those ballots are examined to see who those voters’ number 2 candidate is. You distribute those ballots to the remaining candidates then see if someone now has 50%. If you do, that person is the winner. If not, you repeat the process.
Voting would certainly be more time-consuming. However, if more and more of us are voting from our homes rather than a polling place, this may not be a major problem for many. And you can take a sample ballot into the polling booth with you to remember your decision.
But I feel it may help to soften extremism, bringing less acrimony and hopefully more polite discussions. RCV would induce less polarization as there would be competition not only to be someone’s first choice, but someone’s second.
It certainly allows more people to share ideas in debates. And would keep people from winning elections without a preponderance of votes. RCV would encourage third party candidates in partisan races and seeking common ground in nonpartisan races.
I believe this would encourage turnout, giving more voice to the people, by reducing polarization.
There are 16 candidates running next month, and of those you can vote for three at most. All are smart and dedicated people, yet you only get to say yes or no. Get to know these candidates; ask where they stand on issues – even RCV – and think about how your votes might be different if you could rank them. See you next month at the polls!
— This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Barbara Banaian, a professional pianist who lives in the St. Cloud area. Her column is published the one Sunday a month.
Most Popular
Comments / 0