St. Paul, MN – Today, the Minnesota House Elections Committee voted to pass Representative Cedrick Frazier’s (DFL-New Hope) Local Choices, Local Voices Act legislation. The bill allows certain local governments to adopt ranked choice voting for the election of local offices.
A ranked choice voting election permits voters to rank a number of candidates for office in order of preference, and the election results are tabulated in a series of rounds, eliminating candidates based on the strength of their rankings by voters, until the candidate(s) to be elected have received an established threshold of votes sufficient for election.
“This bill is essential to dismantling the toxicity and divisive systems that have historically excluded marginalized communities in our elections,” said Rep. Frazier. “By empowering local governments to decide what system of voting works best for their community, they can enhance the involvement of historically underrepresented and underserved communities in the informed decision-making process which ultimately benefits all Minnesotans.”
The bill passed on a party-line vote and was referred to the State and Local Government Committee.
Additional information and documents from the hearing are available on the committee webpage.
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