Dear John,

January 6 made abundantly clear that now is the time we make the changes necessary to build a more resilient, representative, and inclusive democracy.

And our bill HF89 speaks to this moment.

HF89, authored by Rep. Steve Elkins, adopts Ranked Choice Voting for legislative, statewide and federal elections and allows localities to adopt RCV if they choose. The bill has been introduced in the House State Government Finance and Elections Committee and already has 33 representatives signed on as authors! Sen. Kent Eken has introduced SF218, the companion bill in the Senate, with co-authors Sen. Melisa Franzen, Sen. Steve Cwodzinski and Sen. Jim Carlson. The bill is ready to move, and we are asking every RCV champion in the legislature to sign onto the legislation. We will be sure to let you know when the bill is up for a hearing because we will need ALL OF YOU to show your support by either attending the virtual hearing or contacting members of the committee – or both!

In the meantime, we need your help to ensure the RCV bill does get a hearing and is made a priority this session. We need as many constituents as possible to reach out to their legislators and urge them to advance the bill. These constituent contacts – whether by email or phone – are key to getting our bill heard and passed.

There are two things you can do right now to help us advance the bill:

1. Contact your legislators and urge them to support this critical reform (the link includes all the contact information for your legislators and a sample message to send them).

2. Join our fun phone bank team and help us rally as many RCV supporters as possible to contact their legislators. We will provide a script and training.

The phone banks are held every Wednesday from 1pm-4pm and 5pm-8pm, but if you want to call at a different time, just let us know! We’ll make it easy for you and will be there to assist every step of the way!

Given what happened at our U.S. Capitol, there is growing recognition of the critical need to strengthen our democracy and a greater understanding that Ranked Choice Voting is a key tool to get us there.

Join team democracy at FairVote Minnesota, and help us spread the word!
 

Sincerely,

Katie Humphrey
Campaign Manager