Lawmakers in Minnesota introduced legislation last week that would prohibit local governments from adopting ranked-choice voting, a system that can help third-party candidates’ chances for election and lead to a more representative government. The bill, introduced on March 12, would have the greatest impact in Minneapolis, which has used ranked-choice voting for municipal elections since 2013. The city has elected a Green Party city council member, and it currently has a nearly equal number of men and women on city council and the most ethnically diverse set of lawmakers in its history. Just last year, a well-funded socialist was a viable candidate in a city council election. St. Paul adopted the voting method last year, and a number of other cities are currently considering it. Unlike traditional first-past-the-post voting systems — in which the candidate with the biggest number of votes wins — under ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates on their ballot instead of voting for just one. If no one gets a majority of votes in the first round, next-preference votes are counted until a candidate gets most of the votes. This system eliminates the so-called spoiler effect, helps third-party candidates achieve viability, and ensures that no one can be elected without the support of the majority of voters.

The bill prohibits a list of “political subdivisions” from adopting ranked-choice voting.

The Minnesota bill prohibits a list of “political subdivisions” — such as cities, counties, townships, and even school districts — from adopting ranked-choice voting. A bipartisan group of legislators introduced it, but the two Democrats who had initially sponsored it pulled their support a few days later. The legislative measure is what is known as a preemption bill, a tool conservative state lawmakers have used to block municipalities from setting their own policies. Many of these bills are promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has teamed up with corporations to author legislation that was used, for example, to ban municipal broadband and city living wage laws. The mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, Andrew Gillum, has made overturning preemption laws a cornerstone of his bid to be Florida’s next governor. About a dozen municipal governments have adopted ranked-choice voting, according to Fair Vote, a group that advocates for electoral reforms. The Minnesota proposal appears to be a unique attempt at legislatively crushing local governments’ ability to adopt the voting method. Fair Vote Minnesota had no indication that lawmakers would be filing such a bill this legislative session, said the group’s Executive Director Jeanne Massey. “As this [bill was introduced], I told someone we’d been Maine’d ,” she joked. In Maine, voters passed a statewide referendum in 2016 that would establish ranked-choice voting across the state. The legislature objected to the referendum and blocked its implementation. Activists responded by launching a successful petition drive that will give voters the chance to overrule the legislature in a second referendum during the June primary elections. Voters will be able to test-drive the system during those elections — they will use ranked-choice voting for the first time in primaries for governor, U.S. Senate, and the state legislature.

The two Democrats who had initially signed on removed their names from the legislation after our inquiry.