March 4, 2001
Green Party Endorses Minneapolis City Council Candidates, Charter Amendment
for Instant Runoff Voting
For information contact:
Holle Brian, Chair
Minneapolis/5th District Green Party
(612) 822-6593
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
David Kaminsky
Mpls/5D GP Ballot Iniatives Committee
(612) 331-1681
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cam Gordon
GP candidate for City Council, Ward 2
(612) 332-6210
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dean Zimmermann
GP candidate for City Council, Ward 6
(612) 722-8768
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minneapolis/5th District Green Party members met on Saturday, March 3 to
consider candidates seeking Green Party endorsement for Minneapolis City
Council seats. Cam Gordon ran unopposed and was endorsed for Ward 2, with 46
votes in favor and 1 vote for none of the above. Dean Zimmermann and Tamir
Nolley ran for the Ward 6 endorsement. Dean Zimmermann won with 31 votes.
There were 13 votes for Nolley and one for none of the above. A two-thirds
majority is required to receive Green Party endorsement. Over 70 members and
observers attended the meeting.
Nolley plans to continue his campaign for City Council and run through the
primary election.
The Minneapolis/5th District Green Party platform committee introduced a
draft of a Minneapolis Green Party platform, which was adopted in part after
discussion. The platform will continue to be developed at future Green Party
membership meetings.
The Minneapolis/5th District Green Party ballot initiatives committee
introduced a proposal for a Minneapolis city charter amendment for instant
runoff voting (IRV), or ranked voting. If adopted, this proposal would
eliminate the primary election for city races, and voters would rank their
choices among all the candidates, in order of preference, at the November
general election.
Described by election reform advocate Diane Steen-Hinderlie as “Easy as
1-2-3,” IRV is being promoted by many third parties because it reclaims
“lost” votes — enabling voters’ second choices to be counted if their first
choice does not have a majority; it eliminates the “spoiler” phenomenon; it
assures that representatives are elected with a majority of support in races
where there are more than two candidates; and it gives better representation
to minority positions and emerging political parties. Since there is higher
voter turnout for the general election than the primary, the IRV charter
amendment would also allow a more accurate representation of voter choice;
and eliminating the primary election would save the cost of running two
elections in one year.
The proposal was endorsed by consensus. A petition drive will be conducted in
the coming months in order to put the charter amendment on the ballot for
2001 elections. A summary of the proposal, as it will appear on the
petitions, is included below.
____________
Ranked Ballots Amendment
(Summary of proposed Minneapolis City Charter amendment)
The Minneapolis city primary shall be eliminated, and all city elections
conducted according to the Instant Runoff Voting system:
Voters rank candidates in order of preference. To be assured election, each
candidate must exceed a “threshold” of votes, equal to the total number of
valid ballots cast divided by one more than the total number of positions to
be filled (e.g. 50% in a mayoral or City Council race.)
1) Top choice votes are tabulated.
2) Candidates who exceed the threshold are elected, and the proportion of
each vote in their favor that was superfluous to their election is
transferred.
3) All candidates with less than 0.5% of votes are eliminated, and their
votes transferred.
4) The remaining candidate with the fewest votes is defeated, and his or her
votes transferred.
5) These steps are repeated until the number of elected candidates or the
number of undefeated candidates matches the number of open seats.
Votes are always transferred to the top-listed candidate who has not been
elected or defeated. If several such candidates are listed equally, the vote
is split between them.
In case of a tie for fewest votes at step 4, the most recent count in which
the currently tied candidates were not tied rules. If candidates were tied at
the bottom of all previous counts, the tie is decided by the casting of lots.
Any vacancy of an elected city official is filled by recounting the ballots
from his or her election, with that official removed from the race. The
previously unelected candidate who after this recount exceeds the threshold
set in the original election fills the vacancy. If no previously unelected
candidate exceeds the original threshold, the vacancy is filled according to
existing law.
-- Holle Brian
Chair, Minneapolis/5th District Green Party
(612) 822-6593
_______________________________________________
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