Dear John,

FairVote MN's Announcement on the State Fair

Like many of you, we LOVE the Minnesota State Fair. However, last week we made the decision that FairVote Minnesota would not be able to participate this year due to safety concerns. The Delta variant has significantly increased the risk of transmission, and despite that, the fair is not requiring basic public health measures. We are disappointed by that decision and cannot put staff, volunteers and fairgoers at risk. If the fair changes its policy, we will reevaluate this decision. We look forward to being at the fair next year!

Rank Your Favorite Fair Foods!

While certainly not the same as plowing through a bucket of Sweet Martha’s Cookies or biting into fried Oreos on a stick, we hope you will join us in participating virtually in the state fair by ranking your favorite state fair foods! Whether a Sweet Martha’s fan, a traditional corn dog lover or an advocate of sweet grilled corn, you can have your say by ranking your favorites here. Please feel free to share this link so your friends and colleagues can try out Ranked Choice Voting!

Happy Women's Equality Day!

While we won’t be celebrating Women’s Equality Day at the Fair, we are celebrating the tremendous gains women have made toward full equality and redoubling our efforts to accelerate this goal.

There has never been a more critical time to join in this fight to break down the inequities in our voting system and enable more women to run for public office, win, and lead our democracy forward.

We know that we are far from gender equity in elected office, and we need “accelerants" like Ranked Choice Voting to get us there. In places where RCV is being used, the data show that women are more likely to run and win.

Big Summer for RCV

Before the rise of the Delta variant, we were able to do some exciting outreach at outdoor events in July. FairVote Minnesota staff and volunteers were out in force at events across the metro last month, including Twin Cities Pride, the Minnehaha Arts Festival, the Hopkins Raspberry Festival - and a variety of neighborhood events. We gathered signatures to bring Ranked Choice Voting statewide, signed up new supporters, and encouraged voters in the five cities using RCV for local elections this fall to rank their vote! We also connected with many candidates running in local RCV elections, offered our educational support and encouraged them to campaign for first, second and third choices.

We reached hundreds of voters to educate them about using RCV and signed up more than 1,500 new supporters just over the past month!!

We heard so many positive comments about the power of RCV to improve our democracy. Here are just a few:

Mohamed of St. Paul likes RCV because "it doesn't limit choices to one party or the other."
Kjerstin of Woodbury thinks RCV "is more fair, doesn't favor any party, and lets people vote for who they want to vote for."
Jessica of Lakeland said, "I think RCV would help the partisan divide that's such a problem in our politics today."
And Elliot from Minneapolis explained that "Ranked Choice Voting is inherently more democratic than the current system because it is based on an actual majority instead of a plurality."

We agree!

A big and heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who volunteered. We could not have done this without you.

A Fall Full of Volunteer Opportunities!

If you have not had a chance to volunteer this summer, we have LOTS of opportunities ahead as we get ready for early voting which begins September 17! We need folks to help us educate and prepare voters in the five cities using RCV for local elections this fall – Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park, Bloomington, and Minnetonka. Email [email protected].

And Minneapolis voters! Please tune in for the Minneapolis League of Women Voters’ Mayoral Forum on Monday, September 13 at 6:30pm. You'll have the opportunity to hear from the mayoral candidates on the issues important to you! We are co-hosting the event which will be broadcast live on MCN 6, the league’s Facebook page, and on the Roku MCN6 app. You can submit questions ahead of the forum at [email protected], and we encourage you to submit a question to the candidates about their support for Ranked Choice Voting!

RCV Around the Country this Year

New York City kicked off the use of RCV this year in its first-ever and highly successful RCV Primary in June! Its resounding success had the Washington Post and other editorial boards calling on the expansion of RCV across the country.

And expanding it is! Along with NYC and Minnesota’s five cities using RCV, it will be used in dozens more from coast to coast, including 23 cities in Utah! See full list of RCV cities here.

The momentum for RCV is accelerating quickly, with new ballot measures underway in more cities and states around the country every year. RCV will see its debut statewide in Alaska next November, and it won’t be long before more states, including Minnesota, join the roster of RCV states!

50K Match to Strengthen Democracy

Help Minnesota become the NEXT state to adopt RCV statewide! While Maine and Alaska passed RCV at the ballot box, Minnesota could become the first state to adopt RCV for state and federal offices through legislative action, and we have made tremendous progress on that front.

Rep. Steve Elkins has, along with dozens of co-authors, introduced the RCV for MN bill in the Minnesota House, and Senator Kent Eken has introduced companion bill with colleagues in the Senate. The bill would implement RCV in primary and general elections for state and federal offices and would allow local jurisdictions to adopt RCV if they choose. With three bills in each chamber and 62 co-authors, RCV legislation had the most authors of any bill in the 2021 legislative session. We will build on this progress in the next session and then relaunch our highly successful democracy champion RCV candidate program in 2022 so that we elect a pro-RCV House and Senate for passage in 2023.

One of our supporters is so convinced of the power of RCV, that he has offered a $50,000 match between now and September 30th to fund our educational outreach this fall and our efforts to advance RCV statewide. Please donate TODAY to help us meet our $50,000 goal and advance RCV statewide!

Finally, thank you to Sam Boren, Steve King and all our co-hosts for hosting a successful garden party for democracy this past weekend with special guest Congressman Dean Phillips. Congressman Phillips described the urgent need to improve our politics, noting, “To me, there is no better way to do so than Ranked Choice Voting.”

We agree 100%!

And thanks to all of you for your commitment to RCV and everything you are doing to help us make RCV the way we vote in Minnesota!

Sincerely,

Your FairVote MN Team