Ranked-choice voting opponents have day in court

The two sides involved in a campaign dispute over mailings that supported ranked-choice voting in St. Paul made their arguments to an administrative law judge on Wednesday.

Administrative Law Judge Kathleen Sheehy will have three days to decide whether there's enough evidence to warrant another hearing.

A day earlier, voters in St. Paul approved changing to the ranked-choice system for electing their mayor and City Council members. Supporters cast 52.4 percent of the votes.

The opposition -- No Bad Ballots political committee -- filed complaints in the past week against the St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign, which pushed for the new voting method.

The opponents of ranked-choice allege that the Better Ballot group falsely claimed support from various parties, including the League of Women Voters and President Obama, on mailings sent to voters.

"There's nothing false in the literature," said Jay Benanav, an attorney representing the Better Ballot group.

Chuck Repke of the No Bad Ballots group disagreed.

"Nobody cares if Chuck Repke supports something, but Barack Obama has curb appeal," Repke said.

Benanav said he's confident the judge will find all the statements true.

Even if that's not the case, Benanav said, the election results won't change.

In the case of the League of Women Voters, officials from that group have said that while they support both the current plurality system of voting and ranked-choice voting, the league doesn't endorse candidates or campaigns.

Still, the Better Ballot folks said the state and city LWV support ranked-choice voting as an option, and that was the basis for the language on the mailings.