With the Oshkosh common council elections just around the corner, we should be hearing who is running and who isn't any day now. Is the Chamber able to convince Burk to give it another run? Does McHugh feel he's accomplishing what he set out to do or is time better spent relaxing up in Adams County? Buchholz's method of getting onto the board was somewhat of an irregularity - can he win an election?
What about challengers - lots of folks applied for the vacant seat half a year back - will they test the public support waters? Any students willing to test the democratic process? Will there be any candidates that, if victorious, bring some diversity onto the board? Sustainability was the loud call from the Vision Oshkosh report - will there be anyone running on the sustainability platform? Election senior correspondent Ron Hardy will be sure to keep us updated here, unless of course he himself is a candidate.
I received word this Thanksgiving that the city of Minneapolis implemented an election process we've been calling for over the past few years - Rank Choice Voting (formerly known as Instant Runoff Voting). And, despite all of the gross misinformation spewed by some, there weren't really any problems, riots were withheld, and the institution of democracy didn't come crashing down. Further, the courts said it was legal. Note that these are all significant accomplishments for any election in Minnesota.
According to Fair Vote MN,
Ranked Choice Voting allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot according to their preference - 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc. Voters cast their vote for their favorite candidate knowing that if he or she doesn't gather enough votes to win, their vote will count toward their second choice. In a single-winner election, votes cast for the least popular candidate are not "wasted", but rather redistributed to more popular candidates, based on the voters' second choices, until one candidate wins with a majority of votes.
Minnesota Public Radio put together a quick video that demonstrates really how easy this process is:
We at MainStreet Oshkosh will again put together the super-madeup-way-too-many-candidates-Rank-Choice-Voting-Poll in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to vote. And if you have suggestions of who to include, feel free to leave a message. To see last year's "fill the vacant seat" election, CLICK HERE.
8 comments:
Here's another more in-depth video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZGTnp3cgFY
Yeah that video posted above is the one that Democrats post on blogs to try to turn people off of IRV.
I think I would trust the Public Radio video before this propaganda piece.
Also note that local elections are non-partisan, and also that IRV really only works well with single seat elections. For multiple seat elections you would want to use a similar process called STV, Single Transferable Voting. Much more complicated though, look it up on Wikipedia.
Ron-
I think you should give it a go.
Did I hear somewhere that McHugh would not be running for re-election?
CJ - you are too kind!
Ron,
Me? Kind?
That's kind of funny. *S*
No.
I just think the council needs some intelligent, forward thinking representation. You'd be a great fit for the job. You can be more effective on the council than on the Sustainability Advisory Board.
I hope Bucholtz gives it another shot too. He does his homework.
Wouldn't this method have put Steve Cummings in Paul Esslinger's empty seat?
The roster is getting completed - send over your suggests or post them here ASAP. We're already around 20 candidates!
Don't worry Burk, we got you in there.
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