Minnesota lawmakers consider ranked choice voting bill

| Michael McGurran | InForum |

ST. PAUL — A bill in the legislature would allow Minnesota cities and counties the option of using a ranked choice voting system.

Senate File 3868 would not mandate ranked choice voting across the state, but it would give local units of government the option to pursue it.

“I don’t see what the problem is in allowing cities to experiment with it,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in his testimony in support of the bill in front of the State and Local Government and Veterans Committee on Tuesday, April 16. “Some cities will like it and want to keep it, and maybe some cities won’t like it, and they’ll want to ditch it, but let them decide what they want.”