Media Advisory - FairVote MN offers election night and post election perspective
FAIRVOTE MINNESOTA MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Jeanne Massey, jeanne.massey@fairvotemn.org, 763-807-2550
Minneapolis (Oct. 30) – In 1998, Norm Coleman lost a three-way race for statewide office where the winner – Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura – captured 37 percent of the vote. Will history repeat itself next Tuesday? The answer is, “Yes.”
No, we’re not predicting the winner of next week’s Senatorial contest, but this much is clear: for the fifth statewide election in a row, a Minnesotan officeholder will take office without earning the support of a majority of voters. As in 1998, the winner in this year’s Senate race may draw less than 40 percent of the total vote.
Plurality elections are becoming the norm in Minnesota and elsewhere, a trend that highlights the weakness of the traditional “any-winner-takes-all” system. Plurality winners take office without the affirmative support of a majority of voters and are encouraged to practice increasingly bitter and divisive politics in order to motivate their “base”.
FairVote Minnesota, a non-partisan advocacy group, believes that the adoption of “instant runoff voting” (IRV) is an answer to both problems. IRV is a tested, accepted and implementable system that asks voters to rank their candidates in order of preference. It ensures majority winners in races where there are more than two candidates on the ballot and does so in a single election.
Under IRV, voters cast their vote for their favorite candidate knowing that if he or she doesn’t gather enough votes to be one of the top two finishers, those votes will count toward their second choice. As a result, the votes cast for the least popular candidate are not "wasted", but rather redistributed to the more popular candidates, based on the voters' second choices, until one candidate emerges with a majority of votes.
“Those elected should have the support of a majority of voters, not simply more than any other candidate,” said Jeanne Massey, FairVote MN executive director. “Minority rule raises questions of legitimacy and the prospect of fractionalized governance.”
IRV is already in use in more than a half a dozen jurisdictions around the United States and in democracies such as Ireland and Australia. Minneapolis voters approved its adoption 65-35 in 2006.
“It’s time to bring our voting system into the 21st century to keep current with the state’s increasing political diversity,” said Massey. “IRV eliminates the “spoiler” dynamic and levels the playing field for all candidates, opening the electoral process to new voices and broader political debate.
Massey led the 2006 effort in Minneapolis to adopt IRV for all city-wide voting. The initiative takes effect in the next municipal election in 2009. It is also pushing for legislation in the 2009 session that lay the groundwork for IRV on a state-wide basis.
FairVote Minnesota was founded in 1996 to work for better democracy through public education and advocating progressive voting systems that lead to greater competitiveness, better representation and more participation.
NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS: FairVote MN representatives below are available to Twin Cities news organizations to offer timely perspective on this and other issues related to the 2008 general election. Click here for more background on IRV.
Jeanne Massey, executive director, FairVote Minnesota. 763-807-2550
Dakotah Johnson, outreach and campaign director, FairVote Minnesota. 715-379-2541
David Durenberger, chair, National Institute of Health Policy.
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Minneapolis Councilmember Elizabeth Glidden. 612-396-2288; 612-825-9136
Minneapolis Councimember Ralph Remington. 612-695-2477
Jack Uldrich, Independence Party. 612-267-1212; 612-827-6488
Prof. David Schultz, Hamline University. 651-523-2858
Amy Brendmoen. St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign. 651-492-8488
