Minneapolis voters voted in Tuesday’s election more than any other municipal election in recent history.

The election attracted 54% of qualified voters, which was the highest turnout rate in a city election alone in four decades, breaking the 1997 record of 46.5%.

"Every voter feels that their votes are important, and it is true," said Jeanne Massey, executive director of FairVote Minnesota, a ranking voting advocacy organization. "This is an amazing turnout."

This is the fourth citywide election in Minneapolis, starting in 2009. This is also the third consecutive municipal election where turnout has increased.

In each game, the candidate who won the most first choice votes also wins-with one exception. Voters elected 6 district commissioners from the 9-member Parks and Recreation Committee. In District 6, Risa Hustad had more first choice votes than Cathy Abene, but Abene won.

Candidate Barb Schlaefer was eliminated because she had the fewest first choice votes, while her supporters' second choice votes were mainly for Abene and candidate Bob Fine. Hustad was eliminated in the third round. The choices of Hustad's supporters were reassigned and Abene won.

This is only the third time in Minneapolis that the person leading with the most first votes has not won.

"We have seen it play a role, and I think this is exactly what the ranking selection voting should play," Messi said. "Voters have expressed their preferences. Not every winner is an outright winner. That's why we are in the final to ensure that the majority's voice prevails in the process."

She likened it to the primary election. One of the candidates got more votes than the second. They all continued to participate in the general election, and the candidate who got fewer votes in the primary election could still win.

In the ranking selection voting, voters rank candidates. If the candidate receives no more than 50% of the votes in a single-seat election, the process will enter the second round of voting. Then, the candidate with the least number of first choice votes is eliminated along with the candidate who has no mathematical possibility of winning.

If there is no chance of winning mathematically, officials can eliminate candidates in batches instead of one at a time. For those who are eliminated, the second choice votes of their supporters will be redistributed to the remaining candidates, and this process will continue until the candidates get a majority. If only two candidates are left, the one ahead is elected, even if they didn't hit the 50% threshold due to the number of "exhausted" ballots, such as voters who didn't rank second and third choices or their first, The second and third options were unsuccessful.

In 2017, Barb Johnson, who is currently in the fourth district city council, had more first-choice votes than Philip Cunningham, and Ginger Jentzen was ahead of Steve Fletcher in the third district election. In both cases, the candidate's second or third choice after being eliminated promoted Cunningham and Fletcher's victory.

"It proves the concept to some degree that people can be elected on the strength of second- and third-choice votes," said Aaron Grossman, the city's supervisor of election administration. "It emphasizes the fact that voters have more of a voice when they can rank up to three choices. ... We have more information about what voters are thinking and what they'd prefer."

The election to fill the three general park and recreation committee seats requires seven rounds of tabulation, because the competition has seven candidates and the total number is close. Officials can only eliminate one candidate at a time, not multiple candidates who cannot meet the threshold of victory mathematically.

The mayoral campaign requires three rounds of tabulation to get the final winner, compared to five rounds in 2017.

In the second constituency city council election, Robin Wonsley Worlobah defeated Yusra Arab by 19 votes out of more than 9,000 votes cast in the constituency, which included parts of Dinkytown, Cedar-Riverside and Longfellow communities.

After the first round, Guy Gaskin and Tom Anderson were eliminated and the Arabs took the lead, but after eliminating the current Cam Gordon in the third round, most of his supporters voted for Woloba.

The total number of second and third choices obtained by Arabs is more than that of Voloba, but if voters who rank Arabs in second or third choose Voloba as their first choice, their votes will not be Arabs are counted.

"Your popularity in the first round is the most important, followed by how you build alliances with those who withdrew from voting," Messi said.

Beginning Friday, candidates who lose in elections with less than 50,000 votes and a difference of 0.5% or less can request a recount of votes funded by the city government. Arabia said on Friday that she is still considering this.

"This confuses those of us who really understand the system, so think about all the immigrant communities who don't speak this language, and don't understand what it is," Arab said of the ranking choice vote. "I think we still need to do more to ensure that it is fair to everyone and certain communities will not be discouraged by this process because they don't understand this new system."

Bloomington, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, and St. Paul also used ranking selection voting - according to data from FairVote, Minnesota, five cities in Minnesota used this method at the same time in the first year. In two of the four cities, the voter turnout rate began to increase in 2017.

"What drives turnout is what the ranking selection vote promotes, and that is competition, more candidates, more choices," Messi said. "If it boils down to between two people, and voters think... my vote is irrelevant, they will not result... Ranking selection voting is changing the pattern of how we participate in our local democratic process better."

Messi said that although Bloomington officials manually counted the votes and postponed the election of the two city council winners, the process went well in all five cities.

Minnesota does not have certified automated tabulation software for ranking selection voting, but officials hope it will be available soon to speed up the process.

In Minneapolis, even without controversial voting measures, voter turnout increased in 2013 and 2017, although there are still more voters participating in statewide or presidential elections. In 2020, 81% of Minneapolis voters voted. But because the majority of municipal elections across the country have a turnout rate of 15% to 20%, it is rare for Minneapolis to have a turnout rate of 54%.

"This shows that people are participating in the election process... but 46% are still involved," Grossman said of the voters who participated in the election. "This leaves us room for improvement.

Kelly Smith reports on non-profit organizations/philanthropy for Star Tribune, based in Minneapolis. Since 2010, she has covered Greater Minnesota in the state/region team, Hennepin County Government, Western Metro Suburban Government, and Western Metro K-12 Education Team.

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