For Immediate Release

Contact: Amy Brendmoen, 651-492-8488
June 16, 2008

IRV Petition Certified; Vote Goes to the Public in November
St. Paul Group Says “It’s Time to Party!”

This November, voters will get to decide if they’d like to use Instant
Runoff Voting for Saint Paul Mayoral and City Council elections. To
advance the measure, the Better Ballot Campaign collected over 7,000
voter signatures and met with local officials throughout the past year.
Confident that it had collected ample signatures and eager to move
forward to the education portion of the campaign, the Better Ballot
Campaign filed the giant petition two weeks ago. The signatures were
certified last Friday, and the campaign shifted gears immediately.

"The goal over the next five months is simply to educate St Paul about
how IRV works,” said Dan Duddingston. “To jumpstart the effort, we are
planning dozens of house parties to demonstrate IRV voting on desserts,
cheeses, beer, and anything else we can think of. This is going to be
fun, but more importantly it will demonstrate why this election reform
will benefit St Paul.”

In addition to house parties, the Better Ballot Campaign is partnering
with local restaurants across Saint Paul to hold IRV demonstrations
throughout the summer. Local favorites Cafe Latte, Il Vesco Vino, Great
Harvest Bakery, Café Amore, Downtowner Woodfire Grill and Swede Hollow
Café will help kick-off IRV awareness using menu items for candidates.
By the November election, the group expects to have hosted over 50
cross-sector, cross-demographic, cross-neighborhood parties and held
scores of mock elections in local establishments. The Campaign Team
believes this sort of hands-on learning will make IRV a reality in St.
Paul.

“IRV is actually quite simple in practice,” said Ellen Brown. “People
rank things in order of preference everyday. At parties and
restaurants, voters will rank treats and then visually learn how their
ranked ballots are counted using IRV. This is a great way to show how
elegant and easy the IRV method is.”

In St. Paul municipal elections, IRV would reduce the current two
election system (primary/ general) to a single event where voters rank
the candidates in order of preference on one ballot at the November
general election. If a candidate receives a majority of first-choice
votes, that candidate wins. If not, the lowest vote-getter is dropped
and his/her votes are redistributed to remaining candidates based on
the second choice on those voters’ ballots. This process is repeated
until one candidate reaches a majority.

“In 2009, the Mayor’s race will be the only race in the St. Paul
municipal elections,” Amy Brendmoen pointed out. “That single,
straightforward race will be the perfect time for voters to first use
IRV. The timing couldn’t be better!”

In addition to the signatures of thousands of local voters, IRV has
garnered cross-partisan endorsements from top ranking leaders in St.
Paul’s political parties, nonprofit organizations and professional
associations. The St. Paul and Minnesota State DFL, the Minnesota
Council of Nonprofits, Take Action Minnesota and more have all endorsed
IRV. On a national level, presidential contenders Democrat Sen. Barak
Obama, Republican Sen. John McCain, Libertarian Bob Barr, independent
Ralph Nader and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney have all
endorsed IRV. If adopted, Saint Paul will join nearly two-dozen cities
and states that have passed Instant Runoff Voting across the country.

For more information about how instant runoff voting works or to host an IRV party, visit www.betterballotcampaign.org.

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Our Relay to File the Petition video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezaRVA9KrQ