Effort to roll back ranked-choice voting in St. Paul moves forward

The effort to roll back ranked choice voting in St. Paul took a step forward on Monday.

A St. Paul Charter Commission committee voted to put the question of voting methods to the entire Charter Commission. The charter was changed by a public vote in 2009 to allow ranked choice voting. Now, skeptics want to ask voters if they want to keep it.

Political and neighborhood activist Chuck Repke said he'd like to take up the matter next month.

"At that point, we will ask for an official vote for moving it for public discussion for a primary and general election," Repke said, after a sometimes contentious committee meeting in City Hall on Monday.

Dozens of ranked-choice voting supporters, sporting "I love ranked choice voting" stickers packed the room. Many demanded to know why the city was challenging the petition and vote that changed the city's elections process eight years ago.

There's still a long and winding road back to the old system, which winnowed the field to two non-partisan finalists for the mayor's seat and the seven city council seats in St. Paul.

The charter commission would have to ask city legal experts for a formal charter change. It would be subject to at least two public hearings and would have to win a charter commission vote by July 11 to get a spot on the November ballot. It would then have to win 51 percent approval to actually repeal ranked-choice voting.

City Council member Jane Prince was among the opponents of going back to voters. She said a future primary system would have a vote in August, when turnout would probably be a tiny fraction of the electorate.

She also said she doesn't think the repeal proposal is being transparent enough.

"This was put on the ballot in 2009 as a result of a citizen petition effort of somewhere around 7,000 signatures," Prince said. "And if this process, the charter commission, gets to put it on [the ballot], it will be by eight votes."

The charter commission has 15 members and a majority vote could put ranked voting to voters again, even without approval by the city council or mayor.

Supporters of the repeal effort, however, said they were pursuing the same process that got ranked-choice voting on the ballot the first time.

"They came to the charter commission the first time, tried to get it through the charter commission, failed and had to go that route," said Shawn Towle, the head of St. Paul Votes Smarter, the repeal campaign. "We will do the same thing, we will go the signature route if need be.

"But we will take this process, the more deliberative body and have them make a decision. And if they decide in the affirmative, the voters of St. Paul get to finally make a clear decision."

The charter commission will likely set a date later this spring to meet and discuss the matter further.