Minneapolis probably won't be ready to use a new voter-approved multiple-choice voting system in next year's election, the city's top election official said Friday.
"I don't believe that the city of Minneapolis will be ready for a ranked-choice voting election with equipment in 2009," said Election Director Cindy Reichert in an interview after giving the City Council a status report.
The system, also called instant-runoff voting, allows voters to rank three candidates for an office in order of preference. City voters approved it in 2006 for use in 2009, unless the council adopts an ordinance that spells out why the city isn't ready.
The lengthy schedule for getting the equipment bought, certified by federal and state authorities and delivered makes instant-runoff voting unlikely in 2009, Reichert said.
Fair Vote presses for 2009
She drew a rebuttal from Jean Massey, executive director of Fair Vote Minnesota, which supports ranked voting. She said the city needs to speed up seeking proposals from equipment makers. The council's Elections Committee directed Reichert to start that work and report back in mid-April.
"There could be hiccups that prevent [2009] but we need to proceed and do everything we can to make that happen," said Massey.
She suggested that the city consider renting equipment for 2009 or using centralized scanners that do the calculations that identify winners from the preference ballots.