MN: Ranked Choice Gives Greens a Boost

From Twin Cities:

In November, voters in the St. Paul City Council election will be able to choose up to six candidates per seat, ranked in order of preference. In other words, downtown residents could conceivably vote for all five candidates who have filed to run for office in Ward 2.
Nov. 8 will mark the city's first experience with the new "ranked voting" system, otherwise known as "instant run-off voting" or "ranked-choice voting," which was supported by voters in a ballot question last year. . .  

Jim Ivey, former political chair for the Green Party of Minnesota, said ranked-choice voting has boosted his party's chances at the polls. He thinks the Green Party will no longer be looked upon as a potential "spoiler" in tight races.

"We worked for years to make this happen," said Ivey, a Lowertown resident who is running for city council in Ward 2. "The Green Party was a key supporter. It's strategic for creating a third-party presence in local politics. It gives people a chance to vote for what they really believe in, and know that there's no risk in doing that....It's great for us."

It's been such a draw, in fact, that the party has recruited a slate of local candidates, some of whom have no previous Green Party affiliation but share the party's "progressive" values, Ivey said.

ME: Greens Enter Ranked Choice Mayoral Race

From the Portland Herald, via Green Party Watch:

Shrugging off the label of electoral "spoilers," members of the Maine Green Independent Party embraced Portland's new rank choice voting system as a third-party-friendly approach to electing the city's mayor.

"I think it will encourage people to run positive campaigns, and rather than having the so-called spoiler, Ralph Nader effect, which is not true at all ... it will totally separate that, because there are no spoilers in rank choice voting," said Tom MacMillan, a Maine Green Party steering committee member who lives in the West End of Portland.

Portland this year embarks on an elected-mayor campaign that replaces a council-appointed mayor with one elected to an at-large seat. Through a city charter change, voters also will choose their next mayor through rank choice voting, where if any candidate falls short of a majority, then the "second choice" votes come into play in the tabulation.

No spoilers in ranked choice voting?