Instant run-off ruling tests Minneapolis' resolve

Plans to have Minneapolis voters elect city leaders this November by ranking the candidates are locked in a game of chicken with the election calendar.

A legal challenge to using ranked-choice voting, often called "instant run-off" voting, means that the final court decisions on whether it's constitutional may not come down until after a legal deadline passes for opting out of using the method this year.

Voters approved a charter amendment in 2006 allowing voters to rank city candidates in the order they prefer. A mayoral candidate would need 50 percent to win. If nobody achieved that in first-choice votes, the lowest-polling candidate would be dropped from each successive vote-counting round. The second choice votes of people supporting each dropped candidate would be added to first-choice votes already counted until one candidate hit a majority. Minneapolis would be the first Minnesota city to use that system since Hopkins dropped it more than 50 years ago.

The Minnesota Voters Alliance challenged the system in late 2007 on state and federal constitutional grounds. A Hennepin County judge dismissed the case. The alliance appealed and has said it will appeal again if it loses.

That could force the city to choose between going ahead with instant-runoff plans and risking an adverse court ruling, or deferring ranked-choice voting for four years.

The Minnesota Supreme Court addressed the dilemma this week by allowing the appeal to go directly to the state's top court and accelerating the briefing schedule to finish by April 13. It also asked the city when it needs a decision this spring in order to meet the city's deadline for aborting ranked-choice plans for this year. The city will come up with that date by April 6.

The charter change gave the City Council an opt-out if the city isn't ready to implement ranked-choice voting, but it must spell out why in an ordinance adopted at least four months before the Nov. 3 city election. A state law also requires that notice of election filings be given two weeks before filings open July 7.

The council last meets on June 12 before those two windows close, although a special meeting is possible. But because unanimous consent is required to adopt an ordinance without notice at a prior council meeting, the prudent course might be to give that notice at the May 22 council session.

A strong majority of the council favors ranked-choice voting and presumably would be loathe to postpone the new method until 2013. A ruling by the state Supreme Court that affirms the trial court decision would lend credence to going ahead with ranked-choice voting.

But if either side asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutional issues, that would pose severe timing issues.

"I think it's highly unlikely that the United States Supreme Court would want to weigh in with a state issue. It's really our state Constitution and our state statute," said Elizabeth Glidden who chairs the council's Elections Committee.

But even that wouldn't prevent the issue from hanging in limbo an uncomfortably long time. Erick Kaardal, an attorney representing the alliance, and City Attorney Susan Segal agreed that the Supreme Court could take at least several months to decide whether to accept the case.

That means a gut-check for supporters on the council of ranked-choice voting. "We have our city attorney to advise us on what is the realistic risk," Glidden said. Segal told the council last month that there would be "significant risk" from going ahead before final appeal is decided.

The city deleted its traditional primary-general election system from its charter when voters approved ranked-choice voting, which doesn't require a primary. The city could follow state election law. But that would mean that candidates couldn't designate their party or campaign slogan on the ballot, which the city charter allowed.

For now, the city is proceeding with ranked-choice voting, while preparing a contingency plan for a traditional election. Election Director Cindy Reichert is planning a May 6 test election of about 600 ballots to check the city's procedures for using and counting ranked-choice ballots. A voter education effort also is planned.