Ann Arbor could change the way it handles local elections.
A proposal on the November ballot is asking voters to decide if future elections for the city’s mayoral office and city council seats should use a ‘ranked choice’ system, if it ever becomes permitted under state law.
In the ranked choice system, also known as instant run-off voting, a voter rates candidates according to their personal preferences.
If no candidate wins the initial count with 51 percent of the vote, the least popular one is eliminated from the tally and people who voted for them have their vote switched to their second choice.
The process continues until a candidate wins with a majority of the vote.
Ann Arbor had previously used ranked choice voting briefly in the 1970s before switching back to a more traditional system.
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— Taylor Pinson is a writer/reporter for 89.1 WEMU News. Contact him at 734.487.3363 or email him studio@wemu.org