December 28, 2009

Dear Mayor, Members of the Council and Members of Staff,

What an amazing story Minneapolis’ inaugural Ranked Choice Voting election is to tell! Brilliant, competent, outstanding, glitch-free, smooth, seamless, easy... These are just a few descriptions we hear about Minneapolis’ transition to Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).

On behalf of the FairVote Minnesota board, we want to congratulate the City of Minneapolis for an extraordinarily successful implementation of RCV and thank you for your remarkable vision, leadership and management throughout the entire process.

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December 28, 2009

To: Mayor R.T. Rybak; Elizabeth Glidden, Elections Chair; Barbara Johnson, City Council President; Members of the City Counci; Pat O’Connor, Director of Election; Susan Segal, Minneapolis City Attorney; Sara Dietrich, Public Affairs Director; Steven Bosacker, City Coordinator; Steve Ristuben, City Clerk; and Mike Dean and Ona Keller, Voter Education and Outreach Coordinators

Dear Mayor, Members of the Council and Members of Staff,

What an amazing story Minneapolis’ inaugural Ranked Choice Voting election is to tell! Brilliant, competent, outstanding, glitch-free, smooth, seamless, easy... These are just a few descriptions we hear about Minneapolis’ transition to Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).

On behalf of the FairVote Minnesota board, we want to congratulate the City of Minneapolis for an extraordinarily successful implementation of RCV and thank you for your remarkable vision, leadership and management throughout the entire process.

We thank the Mayor and Council for their steady vision and policy actions that facilitated the timely implementation of RCV; Council Member Glidden for her exceptional leadership in guiding RCV toward execution; City Attorney Susan Segal and her department for their expertise in defending the legality of RCV and City Administrator Steven Bosacker, City Clerk Steve Ristuben and Public Affairs Director Sara Dietrich and their staff for their all-hands-on-deck support to the elections department during implementation.

We want to especially thank Elections Director Pat O'Connor, the elections staff and voter education and outreach coordinators for their unmatched commitment to the success of this election and round-the-clock effort to ensure a flawless execution. We recognize Pat’s unwavering confidence in the city’s ability to successfully make the transition to a new voting system.

Finally, we thank the hundreds of election judges and volunteers for their commitment of time and energy to make sure voters were prepared for the change at the polls on Election Day.

Minneapolis’ implementation of RCV was a tremendous undertaking and by all measures an enormous success, a victory that was closely observed throughout the country.

Minneapolis is a leader in the state and the region in more democratic elections and stands as a model for cities across the state and country to follow. FairVote Minnesota is honored to have been a partner in this historic process and we look forward to a continued partnership with the City as moves forward to acquire equipment and prepare for its future use.

Thank you, again, for your leadership and impressive implementation performance.

Our sincerest appreciation,

Jeanne Massey, Executive Director and Carol Rudie, Chair of the Board