Nov 3, 2009 6:29 pm US/Central
Ranked Choice Voting, H1N1 New For Election Day
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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The polls remained steady Tuesday with voters casting their ballot for mayor, city council and the park and recreation board in Minneapolis.
CBS
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Minneapolis voters had their first chance to use ranked choice voting, where they can select up to three candidates.
CBS
It's Election Day in Minnesota and across the country. Up for re-election Tuesday are the mayors of both Minneapolis and St. Paul.
There was a steady stream of voters this morning at the polls in south Minneapolis with a number of city council races school board issues on the ballot across the state.
Still, the turnout is drastically different from last year's presidential election.
In the span of five hours this morning, the poll workers at First Christian Church in Minneapolis say they've had about 150 voters so far. Meanwhile, last year's election turned up more than 200 voters every hour.
But that drop-off is to be expected. Predictions say Minneapolis will see about a 35 percent voter turnout, as people have a chance to vote for mayor, city council and the parks and recreation board.
And for the first time, voters will have an opportunity to select not just one candidate, but up to three based on their order of preference.
It's called Ranked Choice Voting, and it could help minority candidates.
"It's better to say number one, two or three," said Hassan Mahamoud, a voter in Minneapolis. "It you lose number one, maybe you can win by two or three. So it's more fair for the candidate and for us, too."
Especially third party candidates.
"I thought it was pretty easy to understand and I really appreciate it because it gives the third party candidates more of a chance," said voter Mark Frank.
Because of Ranked Choice Voting there will be more counting to do, and election officials say they may not have the final results of this election until Christmas.
However, the cost to the city will remain about the same because they did not have a primary election this year.
Voting and H1N1
Beyond the new voting process, poll workers had another new challenge -- keeping an eye on H1N1 at the polls.
Hand sanitizer was available at all 131 Minneapolis precincts.
Typically for an election, 1,000 poll workers will be on hand. This year, they have 1,300 working and 1,600 trained because of H1N1. And they worry workers could become sick during the election or while hand counting afterwards.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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