National & Minnesota Report
With the wind of the Donald J Trump (R) in its face Ranked Choice Ballot (RCV) measures across the country failed and we revel at their losses. The misguided process of holding single transferable elections was on the ballot in a number of states. Alaska. Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and South Dakota all had Ranked Choice Voting questions on their ballots and all failed, except a retention of the system in Alaska, Arizona, and here in our own Bloomington MN.
On nearly every question the wins were minuscule and love for RCV seems to be waning. In fact in the Capitol city, a ballot question not targeted on RCV passed quite handily. The ballot measure called for City of St Paul to hold Municipal elections on even numbered years rather than its current cycle of odd-numbered years. Peter Butler an unsuccessful candidate in 2023 for Ward 2, won a hard fought battle to get the question before the voter after a previously failed attempt.
Because of this change it means voters will vote one-way on the bulk of the election ballot and another way on Municipal elections, which is on its face confusing. Not to mention, the ability to count RCV votes by our current election machines still has not been approved by the state legislature. We believe this might just be the best way to end this unneeded process which is a solution in search of a none existent problem, and a waste of time, money and effort.