Ranked-choice voting bill introduced at MN legislature

HF 2486 was submitted by Rep. Cedric Frazier (DFL-New Hope) at the Minnesota legislature yesterday. The bill would implement ranked-choice voting (RCV) for all state and federal offices in time for the 2026 election.

Since the bill is almost certain to become law, its mere introduction received local media coverage. (KARE 11, Fox 9)

This tweet from KARE 11 was typical:

The bill’s authors — elected officials all — should know better than anyone that Minnesota doesn’t have runoff elections. But ranked-choice voting has always been a solution in search of a problem, real or imagined.

HF 2486 has the maximum number of authors (35) allowed under House rules, including the Speaker and the Chair of the Elections Committee. The Senate companion bill (SF 2270) was introduced Wednesday by Sen. Kelly Morrison (DFL-Deephaven).

I’ve written over and over how RCV empowers the supporters of fringe candidates, how it thwarts the will of the majority of voters, and how it pushes city politics ever lefter.

[All of the Center’s coverage of the issue can be found here.]

RCV is but the latest example of a disturbing trend in St. Paul. This year’s Democratic majority has thrown away decades of tradition around having a bipartisan consensus for radical changes to election law. Democrats are determined to go it alone, pressing home every partisan advantage they can find to keep (or expand) their extremely narrow majority (34-33 in the State Senate).