Good afternoon! We want to extend a tremendous thank you to everyone who voted yesterday in your local elections, all the candidates who ran, and all the election officials who made it possible. And we extend congratulations to all the winners.
Across the state, voters turned out and made their voices heard. In the cities that use RCV, the success of the system reached new heights. We saw historic turnout, diverse choices on the ballot, collaborative campaigning, ranked endorsements, and candidates at every level asking for not just first choices, but second and third choices as well. And when it came time to vote, people were ready to rank and see that their preferences were expressed in the final result, whether their top choices were finalists or not.
RCV empowered voters to fully express their preferences and we saw record enthusiasm and turnout across the RCV cities. We’re looking forward to having more on that front to report soon, so stay tuned for more exact facts and figures! |
Where rankings are coming into play
Voters across Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, St. Louis Park, and Minnetonka ranked their ballots in diverse combinations that reflect the wide range of values, ideologies, and priorities that exist in our cities. Races in four of those cities (all but Minnetonka) require RCV tabulation to deliver majority winners. St. Paul
In St. Paul, RCV results were immediate, with State Representative Kaohly Her emerging as the new mayor-elect last night. The quick, night-of delivery of final tabulations is the result of an automated software, known as RCTab, now being used by Ramsey County that is able to produce results within minutes once all the ballots have been scanned. We’re excited that Ramsey County and the City of St. Paul have taken the lead on rolling out automated tabulation in Minnesota, and hope to see other cities follow suit in 2027 and 2029.
See St. Paul Results |
Minneapolis
RCV results started rolling in late this morning, and so far we have full results for the mayoral race, where Jacob Frey secured a third term, and Ward 5, which went to newcomer Pearll Warren. A whopping 94.4% of ballots cast in the mayoral race continued on to the final round—an increase from the 87.3% we saw in 2021. We’re excited that Minneapolis voters and candidates are embracing the power RCV more and more with each election!
In races up and down the ballot, we saw candidates build coalitions and reach beyond their base for voter support. Several endorsing organizations also started to employ ranked endorsements as a way of maximizing the power of their platforms. And while the Independent Expenditures continued to engage in attack tactics, campaigns remained largely civil as they differentiated themselves and vied for voter support on their major policies and governing style. Efforts to tell voters to only rank one choice were largely ignored—voters demonstrated desire to rank.
See Minneapolis Results |
St. Louis Park
Voters in St. Louis Park also went strong with their rankings, with 93% of ballots continuing in the final round of the Ward 1 City Council election. In that race, Daniel Bashore claimed victory with 62% of remaining ballots.
See St. Louis Park Results Bloomington
Bloomington hasn’t reported their final tabulations yet, but we expect to see those numbers later today. Of the three races on the ballot, only City Council District 1 will go to additional rounds of counting. This is truly anyone’s race, as the leading candidates hold 32%, 37%, and 31% of first choice votes. We look forward to seeing how voters ranked their ballots!
See Bloomington Results |
Key RCV highlights across the country New York City
Maybe the biggest RCV story nationally comes from New York City, which uses RCV only for its partisan primaries, not the general election. Prior to Tuesday, supporters of conservative Democrat and former governor Andrew Cuomo were anxious by the possibility that Republican Curtis Silwa would split the right-leaning vote that they needed to win against Democratic nominee and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. While those fears ended up being moot, as Mamdani won more than 50% of the vote, it also highlights the obvious problems with using RCV for primaries and not the general election.
We will stay tuned to see if NYC moves to expand its RCV system to general elections or to eliminate its primaries altogether in favor of a single ranked election.
Maryland
The city of Greenbelt, Maryland has voted to adopt RCV! The advisory measure passed with 67% of the vote, and now the City Council will have to decide whether to implement the change. RCV would replace a multi-seat plurality system where all candidates run at large and voters get up to seven equally-weighted votes. This system allows a cohesive minority of voters to choose all officials on the ballot. In contrast, the proportional RCV system voters are asking the City Council to adopt would allow all voters to participate in choosing their representatives.
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More details will become available in the coming days as full datasets are released. Again, we want to thank everyone who made RCV a success again this year. We look forward to seeing the moment grow here in Minnesota and around the country!
The FairVote Minnesota Team |
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FairVote Minnesota
550 Vandalia Street, Suite 210
Saint Paul, MN 55114
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