October 1, 2008 - Yesterday, the City of Minneapolis Elections Office recommended implementation of instant runoff voting (or ranked choice voting) for the 2009 municipal elections using a combination of current equipment and a hand count of those races in which candidates do not reach the threshold for election. 

This is a significant step forward and the first firm recommendation by the Minneapolis Elections Office to implement instant runoff voting (IRV) in 2009 in accordance with the 2006 voter mandate to use IRV for municipal elections.  The City Council has the authority to delay implementation if it determines that the city isn't ready to implement in 2009, but the Elections Office is not recommending a delay. FairVote Minnesota applauds the Minneapolis Elections Department and Director Cindy Reichert for this common sense, forward-thinking recommendation.

The recommendation came in a memorandum by Elections Director Cindy Reichert to the City Council following a determination that none of the vendor proposals for voting equipment met the requirements in the Request for Proposals (RFP), due August 1.  Only two vendors submitted proposals - Elections Systems and Software, Inc., and TrueBallot, Inc.

The Elections Office says it cannot divulge the reasons why the proposals did not meet with RFP requirements, but given our knowledge of the voting equipment industry and vendor IRV demonstrations in Minneapolis in late 2007, we know that the vendors already have or can develop equipment that can conduct IRV elections.  The vendors may not, however, be able to guarantee that their systems can be certified in time for use in the 2009 election. 

Whether or not certification uncertainty was the reason the proposals were disqualified, the federal certification process is broken, and hopes that the system would be fixed this year have not yet come true. While the federal testing companies appear to be working and are processing vendor applications in a timely fashion, getting the requisite stamp of approval by the Federal Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) appears to be mired in a restructuring process that is slowing down the entire process. 

For this reason, California and Washington have provided state certification of Sequoia machines, which have successfully completed federal testing.  The machines are IRV capable and will be used to conduct local IRV elections in San Francisco and Pierce County (WA) this November in addition to state and federal races. 

Minnesota law also allows for state certification of voting equipment, but the Secretary of State must develop and seek governor approval for administrative rules to guide this process, the timeline for which is uncertain.

The Minnesota Secretary of State's Office should move forward in creating and approving rules for state certification as quickly as possible.  The EAC process is unreliable and state certification may be required for any new equipment purchased in Minnesota, including IRV capable equipment for elections in cities that adopt IRV for use in 2010 and beyond.

For the 2009 IRV elections in Minneapolis, a supplemental hand-count procedure is a reliable and relatively inexpensive option. FairVote Minnesota supports the Elections Office recommendation to use it as an interim solution until new IRV voting equipment can be put in place for the next election in 2013. 

How would a supplemental hand-count work?  On Election Day in November, voters will complete their ballots - ranking candidates in order of preference - and insert the ballots in the polling-place scanner just as they do now.  The scanners will tally all first choices.  All races in which candidates reach the threshold for winning can be declared on election night.  This will be many, possibly most, races. Following the closing of the polls, all ballots will be safely and securely transported to a central counting center, where the ballots will be sorted and counted for the races requiring a runoff. 

What are the advantages of a supplemental hand-count?

• Existing precinct machines can be used to speed up the process and provide error notification at the polls.
• It is less expensive than purchasing new voting equipment.
• It is completely transparent and observable.
• Hand-counted IRV elections have been a long-standing tradition in places like Cambridge (MA) and Ireland and there is ready
  expertise available to assist in setting up the process.

The recent recount process for the statewide judicial race exemplified the feasibility and timeliness of a hand-count procedure.

The downside is that results for races requiring a runoff would not be immediately available on election night.  The cost and time it takes will depend on the number and type of races that require a runoff. Multi-seat races are more complex than single-seat races to count and will require more time.

FairVote supports the City's movement to implement IRV in 2009 and stands ready to assist in any way the City may need, including voter education, securing technical expertise and capacity to conduct the hand count and facilitating funding opportunities should there be a need for financial resources beyond the city's budget to implement IRV in 2009.

IRV implementation in 2009 is dependent on a favorable outcome of the lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis brought by the Minnesota Voters Alliance. FairVote Minnesota has intervened as a co-defendant in the suit and is fully confident that the court will find that IRV is constitutional, just it has done is other cities where IRV has been similarly challenged.