Voters in Lansing will have the option to approve a new election system for the city in November.
The Lansing City Council agreed Monday to let voters decide in the general election whether to switch the city’s elections to ranked choice voting. Under that system, voters would rank candidates for mayor, City Council and the city clerk in order of preference. The candidate with more than 50% of first-choice votes wins automatically. If no candidate gets that majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Results are retabulated until someone gets a majority of first-choice votes.
Jim DeLine is a backer of ranked choice voting. He says it encourages candidates to campaign based on consensus rather than division.
“So, if you’re going to vote for your candidate as your first choice, please put my candidate as your second choice.’”
If the new system passes November 2nd, ranked choice voting would eliminate Lansing’s nonpartisan primary. The first ranked choice election would happen in 2023.