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Update Alert: St. Paul City Attorney Delivers Unfavorable Memo on IRV

On June 18th, Saint Paul City Attorney Choi held a highly unusual press conference to deliver a letter to Councilmember Lantry. The letter contained an unfavorable opinion regarding the adoption of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in Saint Paul. The opinion came on the heels of the announcement that our petition signatures were certified, qualifying IRV for placement on the ballot this November. Ramsey County Elections Manager Mansky, present at the press conference, also submitted three pages of arguments against IRV in his “neutral” June 16th letter informing the city council that the signatures were certified.

Given that more than 7000 people asked to put IRV on the ballot and that a lawsuit tackling the constitutionality of IRV is not yet concluded in Minneapolis, the Better Ballot Campaign was surprised to learn that the Council was preparing to issue an opinion on the legality of IRV. The obvious intent is to try to stop IRV from appearing on the November ballot in Saint Paul.

We are preparing our response to the city attorney opinion and potential action by the council. We will follow up with you next week to let you know what our strategy is and what action needs to happen to safeguard the will of voters who signed a petition to place IRV on the ballot.

In the meantime, please email Letters To The Editors of the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune in response to their news articles. Tell readers, like this Saint Paul petition signer did, that the Saint Paul city council should listen to the will of voters and support placing IRV on the ballot this fall.

Here are links to the key communications from St. Paul City Hall and the Better Ballot Campaign this week.

We look forward to updating you soon on our strategy
moving forward. Please contact stpaul@betterballotcampaign.org if you have any questions or would like additional information.

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