Minneapolis mayoral race highlights unconventional campaigning

With most of the national focus placed on the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races and the New York City mayoral race, less attention has been paid to other local elections. In Minneapolis, a mayoral race with 35 candidates and an untested voting system has led to unconventional campaigning and confusion among some residents.

Minneapolis, Minn. is using an alternative system of voting for its mayoral elections, called ranked-choice voting. This system allows voters to rank their top three choices in order of preference. Then, if none of the candidates receives an overall majority, the candidate with the least votes will be eliminated, and the second-choice votes of those who chose the eliminated candidate will be counted instead. The following video explains the process.