Cedar Rapids City Council won’t pursue ‘ranked choice voting’

CEDAR RAPIDS — Proponents of ranked choice voting as a potentially more effective, less costly way of electing public officials in Cedar Rapids made one final push this week for the City Council to study the electoral method should it become allowable under state law.

Ultimately, their testimony didn’t persuade the council to add language to the city’s governing document, the City Charter, that would commit to further exploring this system. The nine-member council, with two members absent, voted unanimously with no additional discussion Tuesday to move forward with other charter amendments but leave out the recommended language on ranked choice voting.

The Charter Review Commission had recommended the adoption of “trigger” language that would direct the City Council to establish a “Limited Charter Review Commission” to study ranked choice voting — or instant runoff — if Iowa lawmakers were to authorize the use of it.

The recommendation was among several the panel proposed to the city’s charter, which had set the council-manager form of government in 2006. The commission was appointed in November 2021, when Brad Hart still was mayor, and began to meet in February to review the charter and recommend changes to the council.

The City Council publicly discussed the proposed amendments and took a first vote Sept. 13.

“The charter is not to advocate, it’s to govern,” said Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, who, like Hart, was elected after a runoff. “The only reason ranked choice voting came up is because it’s a potential form of voting that some states are using that we should investigate alongside others, frankly. Does a hypothetical belong in our city’s constitution? I say no.”

Utah’s GOP-led Legislature has allowed cities to adopt ranked choice voting for municipal elections. Nearby states including Minnesota also have piloted it for use in city elections, but there have been efforts by the some citizens in Bloomington, Minn., to repeal ranked choice voting after its council adopted it, the Sun Current reported.

Kelly Spencer, the Cedar Rapids captain with the not-for-profit Better Ballot Iowa, said she anticipates continuing to ask council members to seriously consider ranked choice voting.

“If they do give it serious consideration and stand their ground and they feel like they don’t owe it to the voters to accept this recommendation of the commission, then I think we’ll have to accept that unless we find that there is some legal issue with it,” Spencer said.

Charter changes can be made only by council ordinance or by vote at a special city election triggered through a public petition or council resolution.

Spencer pointed to section 7.02 of the charter governing the Charter Review Commission, which states “the council shall either exercise its power of amendment as provided above on a matter recommended by the commission or submit such amendments to the voters in the form prescribed by the commission …” A proposed amendment would take effect if approved by a majority of voters.

The group’s interpretation is that because the council did not accept the panel’s suggestion on ranked choice voting, the city would have to send the commission’s recommended language to voters to decide.

“We don’t want to have to engage a lawyer to read documents,” Spencer said. “We would prefer to see the council hear the voters and hear the commission that they appointed and accept that recommendation without making it a legal issue.”

O’Donnell said the council did accept some of the changes as written to this section, including a recommendation that Charter Review Commission members not hold any other city board or commission appointments.

“This City Council is focused on the goals and priorities that we set forward alongside the community,” O’Donnell said. “Should ranked choice voting become legal in the state, we would do our part to make sure citizens are informed. … Right now, it is not legal in the state of Iowa and frankly is a distraction to the work that we are doing currently that is legal and moving our city forward.”

Throughout the commission’s review process, most people providing public comment favored ranked choice voting. Under this system, voters rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round, additional rounds of runoff are conducted using voters’ indicated preferences to determine a winner.

Some others suggested ending runoffs and switching to a primary or simply deeming the top vote-getter the winner, even if the candidate doesn’t reach the 50 percent plus one threshold that allows candidates to avoid heading to a runoff election. Others were opposed to ranked choice voting altogether.

O’Donnell said there were several opportunities for public input, and the Better Ballot Iowa group has been the main voice in the discussion.

“I’m not sure Cedar Rapids wants to be used as a tool in the advocacy group’s toolbox to get to the state Legislature,” O’Donnell said. “That’s what I feel is happening right now, and I’m not sure the city is interested in a time that it clearly is not an option and clearly not even legal.”

Evan Perry, a Coe College senior, said the proposed trigger language is not adversarial toward the Legislature because it would only take effect if ranked choice voting is legalized. He said the council may be inclined to “delay confrontation” on the matter.

“I also recognize that the strategy of delay confrontation is a common thread in many of the greatest issues my generation faces,” Perry said. “I recognize even in just the course of my lifetime, playing the waiting game, kicking the can down the road is why we never seem to get policy the right moment we need it.”

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