Residual Forces

Instant Runoff Voting is set to come to Minneapolis in 2009, unless a new court challenge has anything to say about it.

A group called the Minnesota Voters Alliance filed suit Thursday in Hennepin County District Court seeking to keep instant-runoff voting from starting up in Minneapolis.

The group’s lawyer, Erick Kaardal, cited an opinion from Attorney General Lori Swanson saying the system of ranking candidates by preference probably isn’t permitted by the state Constitution. That opinion, issued this year, stopped short of calling the system unconstitutional.

Kaardal also referenced a 1915 state Supreme Court case that struck down a Duluth system that ranked candidates.

The suit challenges the constitutionality of the city’s instant-runoff voter charter amendment, arguing that the method infringes upon an individual’s right to vote, right of association and due process. Named in the suit are Swanson, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

IRV is pretty hard to comprehend. You have to act like you are a pro sports scout on draft day, choosing a first, second, or third choice on the fly in the election both.

The method requires voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate gains a majority (50 percent plus 1 vote), the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped.

Then the second-place votes cast by supporters of that candidate are added to the remaining candidates. The process continues until one candidate gains a majority.

So for those races where there are multiple candidates, you could end up having a person who was selected by very few voters, as a first choice, could end up winning the race after the fuzzy math is applied.

The same usual types who scream disenfranchisement and fraud over touch screen voting and, dare I say it, having a Republican Secretary of State, are in fact pushing this incredibly confusing and process destroying election system. You could actually end up leaving the voting both voting for the winner and the loser, but not really knowing which one of your votes will be counted.

Unfortunately Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (USSR MN) is on the case.