Minneapolis approves Instant Runoff Voting

One of the two issues I had the choice of voting on last week was whether or not to approve Instant Runoff Voting for Minneapolis elections. It passed remarkably well, featured here on the Minneapolis Better Ballot Campaign website.

"The proposal to use Instant Runoff Voting for Minneapolis elections won by a 2-to-1 margin on Tuesday. The victory and its size surprised many long-time political observers.

Besides the 65 percent "yes" vote, the breadth of support across the city was equally impressive. "Yes" votes outnumbered "no" votes in every ward. Further, "yes" votes prevailed in nearly every precinct -- 127 out of 131. The proposal came within 116 votes of winning every precinct in the city."

This is a great step forward for our electoral system, which often has low turnout for primaries.

Afternote: Using these handy Technorati tags, I found this good post on IRV in Minneapolis.

Tags: Minneapolis, elections, instant runoff voting