Another great performance by ranked choice voting

Like millions across the globe, I settled in Sunday night to watch the Academy Awards, from the red carpet prelude to the Best Picture finale. For me, this was a break from the weighty issues at Minneapolis City Hall: diminishing local government aid, needed pension reform, potholes, snow.

But it was not a complete break. There was an interesting parallel between Minneapolis and the Academy Awards. The Academy used preferential voting - also known as ranked choice voting (RCV), or instant runoff voting -- to determine Best Picture. It's the voting method Minneapolis adopted in 2006.

When serving as chair of the Elections Committee, I helped guide Minneapolis' first use of RCV in 2009. As a candidate myself in 2009, I ran for election under the new system. Data gathered after the election confirmed RCV's success, with more than 90 percent of polled voters reporting that it was simple to use. More than two-thirds preferred RCV to traditional voting methods. Under RCV, voters rank their preferences 1, 2, 3 and so on. If no candidate has a majority of first-choice votes, an "instant runoff" occurs. The least popular candidate is eliminated and her votes are reassigned to the remaining candidates, based on those voters' second preferences. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of the votes.

The field for Best Picture was large, with 10 films vying for the prize. Without RCV, a movie might have won with just 11 percent of the vote. What kind of consensus would that be? RCV favors those films that have broad popular support. It also gives independent or lower-budget films a chance to compete without being cast as "spoilers," just as RCV opens elections to more competition and new ideas. Maybe "The King's Speech" would have won Best Picture regardless of voting method, but with RCV we know that a majority of Academy members found this film worthy of the top prize.

RCV is spreading to municipalities around the country, including all the major cities in the Bay Area. Voters in Portland, Maine, and St. Paul will use RCV for the first time this year. Elsewhere in Minnesota, Red Wing and Duluth are considering this voting method. It broadens participation and choice, and gives voters more confidence in the outcome.

Last November, RCV helped elect former City Council member Jean Quan as mayor in Oakland, Calif. She is the first Asian-American woman to hold that office in a major U.S. city. While she was vastly outspent by her opponent, she triumphed with a savvy, grassroots campaign that resulted in a strong base of support and sufficient second- and third-choice backing to win the "instant runoff." Similar races occurred elsewhere in the Bay Area last year, demonstrating the power of RCV to bring better representation and new voices to political leadership.

The Academy Awards is a reminder that all voting has consequences, and that in a democracy, we should aspire to the best system possible. RCV is that kind of system, one that promotes a majority winner, more choices, better representation and, importantly, greater civility. Candidates are much less likely to attack other candidates while courting their supporters for second-choice votes.

I am thrilled that Minneapolis is helping lead the state and county in successful implementation of RCV. I hope that one day we can take RCV statewide, where plurality outcomes have become the norm and reform is urgently needed.

Meanwhile, at the Oscars, the majority prevailed.

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Elizabeth Glidden is a member of the Minneapolis City Council.

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