LETTER: Join me in voting ‘no’ on repeal of RCV

To the Editor:

I was at the Minnetonka City Council meeting on Tuesday when they decided on the wording for this year’s ballot question about repealing ranked choice voting in Minnetonka. I can’t believe we’re going to vote on this again, just three years after a majority of voters opted to adopt it.

The attack against ranked choice voting in Minnetonka is unfounded and coming from the same extreme anti-RCV folks who fought the successful ballot measure to adopt RCV in 2020.

The bottom line is ranked choice voting worked in 2021 and it will again in 2023 and into the future, as it has done around the state, country, and world.

Decades ago, I enlisted to defend our country against Soviet aggression. That same kind of extremist aggression is happening in our community and across the country, trying to roll back our democracy at all levels.

This kind of extremism can be mitigated through RCV because it is a proven tool to incentivize candidates to earn a majority of voter support and compromise once elected.

I’m honored that Minnetonka is among the RCV cities around the country and that I took part in making that happen.

As a refresher, RCV at the local level allows voters to rank candidates in a single general election instead of holding a separate expensive primary election, which only 5% of voters used to turn out for.

RCV brings together the most voters with the most candidates in a single election in November when turnout is greatest and most diverse – and much more representative of the voting public. And, candidates typically talk more about issues than attacking each other.

Who can argue against that? The opponents want to bring back the expensive 5% turnout primary because why? It makes absolutely no sense. RCV is the modern, efficient way to conduct a runoff and I could not be more proud that I live in a community that has adopted it.

Join me in voting “no” on Repeal of RCV on Nov. 7.

Clarence Richard