Remember what I said about ranked choice voting being nothing but a more complicated method of keeping the current establishment in power? I would like to thank both Minneapolis and St. Paul for giving my ego a boost by proving me right.
Here are the results of the Minneapolis mayoral race. You will see that the two candidates with the most first rank votes were Betsy Hodges and Mark Andrew. These were the two Democratic candidates that jockeyed for the state party endorsement. Neither candidate was able to achieve the majority of votes necessary to gain the endorsement so they both effectively ran and the unofficially endorsed candidates.
Now let’s look at the results for the St. Paul mayoral race. Unsurprisingly Chris Coleman, the current mayor of St. Paul, received the most first rank votes.
What is today’s lesson? Ranked choice voting doesn’t change anything. The only thing it does is give third party candidates a false hope that they can win if they work hard enough. In actuality ranked choice voting doesn’t make a difference. I think it’s important to remember that if ranked choice voting could make a difference it wouldn’t be allowed.
Third parties and independents win 1-winner RCV races if they get a majority of the vote against their top opponent. But in races like the Minneapolis park board, it was a 3-seat race, taking 25% to win.
Don’t mourn. Organize.
I’ve been heavily involved in organizing… counter economic solutions that allow individuals to live more freely today. Politics, in my opinion, is nothing more than a game that helps keep those in power in power. I’m primarily interested in taking away their power, which requires extra-political tactics (after all, if voting allowed us to make a difference it would be illegal).