A general election was held in Minneapolis on November 3, 2009. Minneapolis's mayor was up for election as well as all the seats on the City Council, the two elected seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and all the seats on the Park and Recreation Board. This was the first election held in Minneapolis that used ranked choice voting, a collective term for instant-runoff voting and the single transferable vote.
Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2017, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota and 45th-largest in the United States, with an estimated population of 422,331. The Twin Cities metropolitan area consists of Minneapolis, its neighbor Saint Paul, and suburbs which altogether contain about 3.6 million people, and is the third-largest economic center in the Midwest.
The Minneapolis City Council is the governing body of the City of Minneapolis. It consists of 13 members, elected from separate wards to four-year terms. The Council is dominated by members of the DFL, with a total of 12 members. The Green Party of Minnesota has one member, Cam Gordon.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) is an independent park district that owns, maintains, and programs activities in public parks in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It has 500 full-time and 1,300 part-time employees and an $111 million operating and capital budget.
Because city voters approved a city charter change by referendum in 2006 to use a ranked choice voting system, Minneapolis did not hold a primary election on September 8, the 2009 date for primaries in Minnesota.
A primary election is the process by which voters, either the general public or members of a political party, can indicate their preference for a candidate in an upcoming general election or by-election, thus narrowing the field of candidates.
There was a lawsuit in court to prevent the voting change; it lost by summary judgment in the first court, was appealed directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where it also lost. One person active in the lawsuit filed as a candidate but did not campaign; allegedly this was to give him legal standing to sue after the election.
The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The court hears cases in the Supreme Court chamber in the Minnesota State Capitol or in the nearby Minnesota Judicial Center.
Incumbent Democratic–Farmer–Labor Mayor R. T. Rybak announced on January 13, 2009 that he would be running for re-election. [1] 11 candidates were on the ballot.
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a center-left political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party. Formed by a merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the left-wing Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1944, the DFL is one of only two state Democratic party affiliates of a different name.
Raymond Thomas "R. T." Rybak Jr. is an American politician, journalist, businessperson, and activist who served as the 46th mayor of Minneapolis. In the 2001 election Rybak defeated incumbent Sharon Sayles Belton by a margin of 65% to 35%, the widest margin of victory over an incumbent mayor in city history. He took office in January 2002, and won a second term in 2005 and a third in 2009. In late December 2012, he announced he would not run for another term and was going to be concentrating on his family. Rybak called being mayor his "dream job."
Previously mentioned as possible candidates for Mayor were Bob Miller, the director of the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP), Minneapolis City Council members Gary Schiff and Ralph Remington, Minneapolis Park Board President Tom Nordyke, former City Council president Jackie Cherryhomes, and Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin; none of them ended up running.
Ralph Remington is an American theater producer, theater director, actor, writer, former funder, and former American politician. Ralph was named Deputy Director for Arts and Culture for the City of Tempe, Arizona on June 1, 2016. He also has artistic responsibility for the Tempe Center for the Arts as artistic director. Remington is the former Western Regional Director/Assistant Executive Director of Actors' Equity Association. In 2010 he became the Director of Theater and Musical Theater for the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently resides in Tempe, Arizona. Remington has written seven feature screenplays and two plays.
All 13 seats on the Minneapolis City Council were up for election.
The two elected members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation were up for election. Incumbent Carol Becker was re-elected in the first round with 52.1% of first-choice votes. As no other candidate achieved the threshold to be elected the second member, several rounds of vote transfers were necessary. David Wheeler was elected in the fifth round after the remaining candidates were defeated.
Members were elected citywide via the single transferable vote.
Party | Candidate |
---|---|
Minneapolis DFL [2] | Carol Becker |
Fifth Congressional District Independence Party of Minnesota | Michael Martens |
Minneapolis City Republican Committee [3] | Michael Martens |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | % Final |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carol Becker | 52.13 | 16,728 | 10,697.5560 | 10,697.5560 | 10,697.5560 | 10,697.5560 | 33.64 |
David Wheeler | 19.03 | 6,107 | 7,239.6910 | 7,490.0575 | 8,107.4270 | 8,107.4270 | 25.27 |
Phil Willkie | 9.19 | 2,950 | 3,527.1605 | 3,732.4080 | 4,098.4360 | 4,098.4360 | 12.77 |
DeWayne Townsend | 7.24 | 2,323 | 3,231.4600 | 3,364.4975 | 3,674.0740 | 3,674.0740 | 11.45 |
Michael Martens | 8.66 | 2,778 | 3,120.8355 | 3,273.4310 | |||
James Elliot Swartwood | 3.04 | 975 | 1,160.6575 | ||||
Write-ins | 0.70 | 225 | 241.5830 | ||||
Exhausted ballots | 2867.0565 | 3528.0500 | 5508.5070 | 5508.5070 | 17.17 | ||
Threshold | 10,696 | ||||||
Valid votes | 32,086 | ||||||
Undervotes | 13,882 | ||||||
Turnout | 19.64 | 45,968 | |||||
Registered voters [4] | 234,028 | ||||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [5] |
The nine members of the Park and Recreation Board were up for election. Three members were elected from one citywide, at-large district via the single transferable vote and six from single-member districts via instant-runoff voting.
Party | At-large | District 1 | District 3 | District 4 | District 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minneapolis DFL [2] | Mary Merrill Anderson | Liz Wielinski | Scott Vreeland | Anita Tabb | Brad Bourn |
John Erwin | |||||
Tom Nordyke | |||||
Fifth District Green Party [6] | Annie Young | ||||
Fifth Congressional District Independence Party of Minnesota | Dave Wahlstedt | ||||
Minneapolis City Republican Committee [3] | Dave Wahlstedt |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | % Final |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bob Fine | 22.07 | 8,089 | 8,193 | 8,363 | 8,708 | 9,329 | 9,329 | 25.45 |
Annie Young | 18.94 | 6,941 | 7,062 | 7,490 | 7,741 | 8,371 | 8,371 | 22.84 |
John Erwin | 17.39 | 6,376 | 6,514 | 6,635 | 6,841 | 7,733 | 7,733 | 21.10 |
Mary Merrill Anderson | 14.92 | 5,394 | 5,470 | 5,913 | 6,096 | 6,810 | 6,810 | 18.58 |
Tom Nordyke | 10.14 | 3,716 | 3,787 | 3,885 | 4,118 | |||
David Wahlstedt | 7.66 | 2,807 | 2,888 | 2,991 | ||||
Nancy Bernard | 5.52 | 2,024 | 2,125 | |||||
John Butler | 3.04 | 1,114 | ||||||
Write-ins | 0.53 | 194 | ||||||
Exhausted ballots | 616 | 1,378 | 3,151 | 4,412 | 4,412 | 12.04 | ||
Threshold | 9,164 | |||||||
Valid votes | 36,655 | |||||||
Undervotes | 9,313 | |||||||
Turnout | 19.64 | 45,968 | ||||||
Registered voters | 234,028 | |||||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [7] |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 |
---|---|---|
Liz Wielinski | 74.20 | 4,335 |
Bernie Kunza | 15.56 | 909 |
John Malone | 9.67 | 565 |
Write-ins | 0.56 | 33 |
Threshold | 2,922 | |
Valid votes | 5,842 | |
Undervotes | 1,065 | |
Turnout | 6,907 | |
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [8] |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 |
---|---|---|
Jon Olson | 56.35 | 2,874 |
Michael Guest | 42.80 | 2,183 |
Write-ins | 0.84 | 43 |
Threshold | 2,551 | |
Valid votes | 5,100 | |
Undervotes | 844 | |
Turnout | 5,944 | |
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [9] |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 |
---|---|---|
Scott Vreeland | 72.35 | 3,430 |
Mike Wendorf | 26.17 | 1,239 |
Write-ins | 1.48 | 67 |
Threshold | 2,369 | |
Valid votes | 4,736 | |
Undervotes | 1,424 | |
Turnout | 6,160 | |
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [10] |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 |
---|---|---|
Anita Tabb | 97.45 | 5,012 |
Write-ins | 2.55 | 131 |
Threshold | 2,572 | |
Valid votes | 5,143 | |
Undervotes | 2,246 | |
Turnout | 7,389 | |
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [11] |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final |
---|---|---|---|---|
Carol Kummer | 37.77 | 2,964 | 3,620 | 46.13 |
Jason Stone | 35.52 | 2,788 | 3,271 | 41.68 |
Steve Barland | 19.64 | 1,541 | ||
Dan Peterson | 4.70 | 369 | ||
McLain Looney | 1.92 | 151 | ||
Write-ins | 0.45 | 35 | ||
Exhausted ballots | 957 | 12.19 | ||
Threshold | 3,925 | |||
Valid votes | 7,848 | |||
Undervotes | 1,534 | |||
Turnout | 9,382 | |||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [12] |
Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final |
---|---|---|---|---|
Brad Bourn | 48.16 | 4,023 | 4,300 | 51.47 |
Meg Forney | 36.39 | 3,040 | 3,506 | 41.97 |
Steven Jecha | 11.71 | 978 | ||
Geneva Hanvik | 3.32 | 277 | ||
Write-ins | 0.43 | 36 | ||
Exhausted ballots | 548 | 6.56 | ||
Threshold | 4,178 | |||
Valid votes | 8,354 | |||
Undervotes | 1,832 | |||
Turnout | 10,186 | |||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [13] |
The Green Party of Minnesota is a green political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States.
The 2005 Minneapolis municipal elections in the U.S. state of Minnesota held a scheduled primary election on 13 September and a general election on 8 November. Voters in the city elected:
The city of Vancouver, along with the rest of British Columbia's municipalities, held its municipal elections on November 19, 2005. Canadian citizens who were over 18 years of age at the time of the vote, and had been a resident of Vancouver for the past 30 days and a resident of BC for the past six months, were able to vote for candidates in four races that were presented on one ballot. In addition, Canadian citizen non-resident property owners were eligible to vote.
Vision Vancouver is a social democratic and green liberal municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vision was formed in the months leading up to the 2005 municipal election.
The City of Vancouver, Canada, held municipal elections on November 16, 1996. Canadian citizens who were over 18 years of age at the time of the vote, and had been a resident of Vancouver for the previous 30 days and a resident of B.C. for the previous six months, were able to vote for candidates in four races that were presented on one ballot. In addition, Canadian citizen non-resident property owners were eligible to vote.
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is used for state and congressional elections in Maine and for local elections in 11 cities, where it is often called "ranked-choice voting." Those cities include San Francisco, California; Oakland, California; Berkeley, California; San Leandro, California; Takoma Park, Maryland; Basalt, Colorado; Telluride, Colorado; St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Portland, Maine. It is pending implementation in several additional cities, including in 2019 in Las Cruces, New Mexico and St. Louis Park, Minnesota. IRV is commonly used for student government and other non-governmental elections, but it has been proposed for Democratic primaries.
The 2009 Minneapolis mayoral election was held on November 3, 2009 to elect the Mayor of Minneapolis for a four-year term. Incumbent R. T. Rybak won re-election for a third term in the first round with 73.6% of the vote.
Elizabeth A. "Betsy" Hodges is an American politician who served as the 47th mayor of Minneapolis. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, she represented Ward 13 on the Minneapolis City Council from January 2006 until January 2014. Hodges was reelected to the city council in the 2009 Minneapolis municipal elections.
Andy Exley is an American politician and member of the Green Party of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his bachelor's degree from Carleton College in 2003. He served as the chairman of the Green Party of Minnesota from June 2008. He was a candidate for the Minneapolis City Council, Ward 6 in the 2009 Minneapolis municipal elections. Minneapolis elections use ranked choice voting; Exley received 165 first place votes for 8.55% of the vote.
The 2013 Minneapolis mayoral election was held on November 5, 2013 to elect the Mayor of Minneapolis for a four-year term. This was the second mayoral election in the city's history to use instant-runoff voting, popularly known as ranked choice voting, first implemented in the city's 2009 elections. Municipal elections in Minnesota are nonpartisan, although candidates are able to identify with a political party on the ballot. After incumbent Mayor R. T. Rybak announced in late 2012 that he would not seek a fourth term, 35 candidates began campaigns to replace him. Many of these candidates sought the endorsement of the Minneapolis unit of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), though the convention ultimately ended with no endorsement.
The City of Vancouver, Canada, held municipal elections on November 20, 1999. Canadian citizens who were over 18 years of age at the time of the vote, and had been a resident of Vancouver for the previous 30 days and a resident of B.C. for the previous six months, were able to vote for candidates in four races that were presented on one ballot.
The 2013 Minneapolis City Council elections were held on November 5, 2013 to elect the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council for four-year terms. 10 races produced a winner in the first round and the remaining three in the second round. Candidates affiliated with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) won all 12 of the seats where they had fielded a candidate, and the Green Party of Minnesota won the remaining one seat.
A general election was held in Minneapolis on November 5, 2013. Minneapolis's mayor was up for election as well as all the seats on the City Council, the two elected seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and all the seats on the Park and Recreation Board. Voters were able to rank up to three candidates for each office in order of preference.
The 2009 Minneapolis City Council elections were held on November 3, 2009 to elect the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council for four-year terms. Candidates affiliated with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) won 12 seats and the Green Party of Minnesota one seat.
The 2014 Vancouver municipal election took place on November 15, 2014, the same day as other municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia selected their new municipal governments. As with previous elections, voters elected one mayor, 10 councillors, nine school board trustees, and seven park board commissioners through plurality-at-large voting. Voters also voted on whether to approve a capital budget.
John M. Quincy is an American politician and marketing consultant living in Minneapolis. From 2010–2018, he served two terms on the Minneapolis City Council as a representative of the city's 11th Ward. Quincy moved to Minneapolis in 1994 and sought the endorsement of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) in 2006 for a seat on the Minneapolis Board of Education which he did not receive. He won both the DFL's endorsement and the 2009 City Council election and served as the head of several committees. He has also acted as a member of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport's Noise Oversight Committee.
The 2017 Minneapolis mayoral election was held on November 7, 2017, to elect the Mayor of Minneapolis. This was the third mayoral election in the city's history to use ranked-choice voting. Municipal elections in Minnesota are nonpartisan, although candidates were able to identify with a political party on the ballot.
A general election was held in Minneapolis on November 7, 2017. Minneapolis's mayor was up for election as well as all the seats on the City Council, the two elected seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and all the seats on the Park and Recreation Board. Voters were able to rank up to three candidates for each office in order of preference.
The 2017 Minneapolis City Council election was held on November 7, 2017, to elect the members of the Minneapolis City Council. The political composition remained unchanged, with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) retaining 12 seats and the Green Party of Minnesota one seat. Three DFL incumbents were defeated by intraparty opponents. The new City Council convened on January 8, 2018.