Minnesota Senate Race Shows Benefits of Ranked Choice Voting

The US Senate race in Minnesota is a mess. This mess is in no small part due to the plurality voting system used in electing Senators in Minnesota and elsewhere around the country. Ranked Choice Voting (or as it is known in Minnesota Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)) would have improved the Senate race in Minnesota.

David Durenberger writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

"We all were hoping that the bruising and expensive race for the U.S. Senate seat would end on Election Day.

Instead, the $40 million-plus campaign continues to permeate our headlines and limit our forward momentum. The Coleman-Franken race is now in a contentious recount and is almost certainly headed to the courts from there. The recount and its aftermath will be a protracted and high-priced affair, and no matter the outcome, most voters will be left wondering if there is not a better way to express our preferences.

Instant-runoff voting (IRV) would have produced an entirely different election."

Minnesotans would have been better off. Residents of Pierce County have had the benefit of adopting such a system for county level elections. This year's set of RCV elections went well and many voters are hoping this positive election reform will spread throughout the states of Washington and Minnesota.