LETTER: Minnetonka a leader with RCV

To the Editor:

Minnetonka has long been a leader in improving the administration of elections. I was impressed we, the community, adopted ranked choice voting three years ago, when nearly 55% of the city’s voters said yes to implementing ranked choice voting for local elections.

Another example of Minnetonka’s leadership was a decade ago, when the city partnered with my Office of the Secretary of State, to lead the way on the adoption of electronic poll books. As early adopters, the citizens of Minnetonka demonstrated that this new approach was the most efficient and secure way to verify voters coming to the polls on Election Day. Within just a few years, the rest of the state followed their lead.

In the same spirit of efficiency and innovation, Minnetonka voters adopted ranked choice voting for their municipal elections, and its successful rollout has underscored the wisdom of that decision. For me, as our state’s former Chief Elections Official, I was impressed by the fact that voter turnout in Minnetonka increased more than 50 percent over past similar elections. That’s something to celebrate. I was also happy to learn that ranked choice voting also saved taxpayers significant money by not having a primary. As in the past, Minnetonka’s city election administrators did an outstanding job implementing this improved system and I applaud them for their efforts.

Ranked choice voting has worked well in Minnetonka. I hope that Minnetonka voters continue to lead the state in election administration by affirming the use of ranked choice voting in the upcoming election.

Mark Ritchie

Ritchie was Minnesota Secretary of State from 2007-2015.