In instant-runoff ‘practice’ vote for guv, ranking choices didn’t affect who won

The results of a DFL-sponsored “practice” election for governor using instant-runoff voting (IRV) would have been the same even if IRV hadn’t been used: The winner was state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher – who made her run for guv official this morning – with Mayor R.T. Rybak in the runner-up slot.

The mock election was held at three locations in Minneapolis Tuesday, the day a primary election would’ve taken place were it not for the inaugural use of IRV this fall. It was open to anyone, whether a DFLer, a resident of Minneapolis or none of the above.

The tally after the first round of ballot-counting:

Margaret Anderson Kelliher, 34 percent
R.T. Rybak, 30 percent
John Marty, 12 percent
Paul Thissen, 10 percent
and eight other candidates at or below 3 percent each, plus write-ins

In the next step of IRV ballot-counting, all candidates but Rybak and Kelliher were eliminated, with the lower-ranked votes on ballots favoring those candidates transferred to the top two.  Marty, a state senator from Roseville, and Thissen, a state representative from Minneapolis, were last to be eliminated, and so effectively took third and fourth place, respectively. The final round results:

Kelliher, 55 percent
Rybak, 45 percent

The total number of ballots cast was 271, spokesperson Kelly O’Brien tells the Minnesota Independent, with a rough breakdown of 136 at a Lyn-Lake location and 80 in the Longfellow neighborhood of South Minneapolis, and 55 at a North Minneapolis site.