It’s time to get ready for the 2024 Minnesota legislative session! Read this newsletter to get the latest updates on ranked choice voting legislation, how you can help, insider Capitol news, and a hugely successful voting rights symposium with the University of St. Thomas last week!
Welcome back legislators
Join FairVote Minnesota at the State Capitol to celebrate the start of the 2024 legislative session and show up for RCV supporters on opening day! We’ll meet outside the House and Senate chambers to greet incoming legislators, thank RCV supporters, and let them know we look forward to working with them to pass a ranked choice voting local options bill that would empower more local jurisdictions with the ability to adopt RCV if they choose. We want to have a big presence to show returning legislators how much support there is for RCV, so don’t wait to sign up––we hope you can be there! When: Monday, February 12, 11:00am-1:00pm Where: Minnesota State Capitol, 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., St Paul What: Welcome legislators back to session in hallways outside House and Senate chambers |
We’ll have staff and volunteers to greet you outside the chambers and let you know where to go. Remember to wear your orange RCV t-shirt, but if you don’t have one, we’ll have some available. Please note that ERA Minnesota is having a rally in the Capitol Rotunda that day beginning at 10:00am, and they would welcome our participation if you have time to join.
Please share the registration link, www.fairvotemn.org/Feb12, with your friends and contacts. All are welcome! We are so grateful to have your participation and support as we work together to bring ranked choice voting to more communities across our great state.
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Contact your legislators!
As you may have heard, our goal this session is to pass the RCV local options bill. Under current law, only a small number of charter cities are able to adopt ranked choice voting; all other local jurisdictions must get special permission from the legislature. Local options legislation would give more local jurisdictions the ability to adopt RCV for their elections if they so choose.
We’re thrilled to report that Secretary of State Steve Simon supports the legislation, and our chief authors Senator Kelly Morrison and Representative Cedrick Frazier are working with his office on the bill.
“If a community wants to adopt ranked choice voting, as others have, they should be allowed to do that,” Secretary Simon declared at our Session Kickoff this Monday. He added, “That just makes sense as a rule for democracy, and cities are great laboratories of democracy. And so. . . my hope is this year we can get that across the finish line.”
Help us get the RCV local options bill across the finish line by contacting your state legislators and urging them to support the bill!
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Voting Rights Symposium Success The
Symposium on Voting Rights at the University of St. Thomas last Thursday was a huge success! Nearly 700 people registered for the symposium. We welcomed a full house at St. Thomas, and hundreds attended online. Almost all of the state’s constitutional officers headlined the event, including Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, Secretary of State Steve Simon, and Attorney General Keith Ellison. They were joined by state legislative leaders, Minnesota advocates working to expand voting rights and some of our nation’s top democracy scholars. The symposium is going to have a tremendous impact on the conversation about voting rights and democracy reform in our state for years to come.
Gov. Walz opened the event by highlighting the importance of this moment: “We're at a time when emotions run high on every issue. Our politics seem to polarize us to the point where conversation and dialogue seem impossible, and that's why this symposium is more important than ever. This is not just an academic exercise.
This is at the center of the most important issues facing our country.” Dr. Yohuru Williams, Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at St. Thomas, explained,
“It is only through interrogating the ways in which the franchise has been limited, undermined, and outright suppressed—and the futility that voters often feel with the process—that we can address voter fatigue and disaffection.”
We were so proud to help lead and facilitate this seminal event at the start of Black History month about our voting rights, our history, how that history reverberates today, and ways we can, not only protect our voting rights, but improve our political system so that it is more representative and responsive for all of us. Ranked choice voting came up repeatedly throughout the program as one of the key tools to improve our system and make it more representative and inclusive, underscoring the importance of our work to expand RCV in our state.
Thanks to all of you who were able to attend and/or volunteer. And a special thanks to all of our co-hosts, sponsors and community partners who made this event possible. We are so grateful to have partnered with the University of St. Thomas and its Racial Justice Initiative, whose hard work, leadership and vision made this event such a success.
If you missed part of the program or would like to share it with others, you can see the full Zoom recording here.
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Caucus for RCV on February 27
Last, but not least!
Minnesota political parties hold party caucuses on Tuesday, February 27 at 7:00 pm, and that’s where the parties endorse candidates, select delegates, and set the party platform. Caucuses are the first step in helping to elect pro-RCV candidates this year. Please mark your calendars and save the date to help us promote ranked choice voting and ensure your party endorses candidates who support RCV. We’ll send you more information about caucuses and how you can help next week!
Thank you for your support of FairVote Minnesota and being part of the broader movement to create a more representative, inclusive and responsive democracy. We couldn’t do all of this work without you. Sincerely, Your Team at FairVote Minnesota |
FairVote Minnesota
550 Vandalia Street, Suite 210
Saint Paul, MN 55114
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