Minnesota Voters Alliance v. City of Minneapolis

IRV Challenge - Press Announcement & Court Hearings
Press Release

Citizens Will Defend The Right To Vote

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. City of Minneapolis

Erick G. Kaardal, counsel for the Minnesota Voters Alliance, will argue before the Honorable George McGunnigle challenging the constitutionality of the City of Minneapolis' effort to institute Instant Runoff Voting for the 2009 municipal elections.

The hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 8, 2008, at the Hennepin County District Courthouse, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

All written briefing has been submitted to the court and oral argument on Wednesday morning will not only answer questions of the judge, but highlight key constitutional elements focusing on the sophisticated manner that Minneapolis employs through Instant Runoff Voting to weigh or dilute votes to affect the election of candidates. Mr. Kaardal will argue as one of Minnesota Voters Alliance's experts found, that IRV is a system in which an elector voting for a candidate as a first-choice can actually harm his or her ability to get elected.

Instant Runoff Voting threatens to undermine the fundamental right to vote under both the Minnesota and United States Constitutions.

Mr. Kaardal will be happy to meet with members of the press to answer all questions on the main floor of the Minneapolis Government Center immediately after the one-hour hearing.

Court Hearing

8:30 a.m., Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Hennepin County District Court

Minneapolis Government Center

For more information, contact Erick G. Kaardal at 612-341-1074.

Attached Letter:

Dear Friends,

If your location is considering adopting Instant Runoff Voting methods, these materials are important for you to read because Instant Runoff Voting is a threat to the fairness and integrity of elections worldwide, having already been adopted in several countries and in several U.S. jurisdictions.

My affidavit for Plaintiffs shows that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is a fundamentally unfair, mathematically flawed vote counting method that would cause many election problems - not the least being that IRV requires centralized counting and is very difficult to accurately hand-count or audit.

http://electionmathematics.org/em-IRV/Affadavit-KD-0929-v7.pdf

My affidavit, as well as Plaintiffs' legal briefs that make a case for the unconstitutionality of IRV, and a link to Defendants' legal briefs, are posted publicly at:

http://electionmathematics.org at the top of the "Instant Runoff Voting" page (see menu on left).

The Plaintiffs this a.m. sent out this note regarding the hearing mentioned in yesterday's Press Release below,

"The hearing and oral arguments originally scheduled for October 8, 2008 on the merits of the constitutionality of the City of Minneapolis Single Transfer Vote — Instant Runoff Voting — has been postponed [at request of the City of Minneapolis].

A hearing will be held on Wednesday morning, but only on procedural matters. We hope to know more regarding a re-scheduled hearing soon and we expect it to be still take place in October."

-Kathy Dopp

The material expressed herein is the informed product of the author Kathy Dopp's fact-finding and investigative efforts. Dopp is a Mathematician, Expert in election audit mathematics and procedures; in exit poll discrepancy analysis; and can be reached at:

P.O. Box 680192 Park City, UT 84068 phone 435-658-4657

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