Let the Voters Decide!
A huge grassroots effort to improve our local voting process is being derailed by a small group of unelected commissioners who are planning to use a loophole to stop you from voting on RCV.
Last week, it seemed as if RCV was inevitable. An official city survey showed residents favored using RCV by a 3-to-1 margin. A public comment period was overwhelmed with RCV supporters. The charter commission was due to complete their study, which began last fall. Then it would go back to the city council, who could put RCV on the November ballot with a simple majority of 4 councilmembers supporting it. Then it would be up to you, the voters, to make the final decision.
But this wave of support made the commission realize that this movement wasn’t just a few activists - it was an overwhelming majority of residents, who WOULD vote for RCV, if given the chance. Rather than recognizing the wishes of Minnetonka residents, they disputed the legitimacy of the community survey, served up mistruths, and found a procedural loophole that would keep RCV off the November ballot. Apparently they know what voters want better than voters do. Their actions are simply anti-democratic.
At next Tuesday’s meeting, they plan to formally vote to delay their process by 90 days, preventing the elected city council from taking any action, for the specific purpose of keeping RCV off the November ballot.
We must act now:
1) Contact Mayor Wiersum (bwiersum@minnetonkamn.gov) and the Council. The Mayor is on the charter commission and is directly responsible for allowing this to happen. The council listened to their residents and followed the process in good faith, only to have the charter commission obstruct the process.
2) Join us tomorrow (Thursday) at 5pm for a group photo shoot with LET THE VOTERS DECIDE signs in front of city hall (14600 Minnetonka Blvd) so we can show the charter commission and city council that Minnetonka voters want RCV on the ballot. We will be socially distanced and masked. We’ll have a t-shirt for you when you arrive! We want EVERYONE there. Click here to let us know you can be there!
For those who can’t be there in person, we’ll be meeting on Zoom at noon the next day.
3) Call into the city council meeting on Monday and share why this is so horribly wrong. We have this chance early on the agenda during the agenda item called “Citizens Wishing to Discuss Matters Not on the Agenda.” Call 952-939-8211 by Friday afternoon to provide your name and phone number to the city meeting coordinator so they can provide instructions to participate.
Most of us have been pretty fed up with the anti-democratic behavior of our state and federal government for a while, but I never thought I would see such an undemocratic process in my own city. They know that, absent a pandemic, we could have easily collected enough signatures to put this on the ballot directly. This is a textbook example of insider politics and bureaucracy that disgusts so many people. In short, an obscure, unelected group of appointed insiders should not be preventing voters from deciding how they would like to run our local elections!
Please Contact the Mayor and City Council now. Make your voice heard. That’s all any of us really have.
