If a special election is required to fill the office of mayor in Minneapolis next year, it will be a good test of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), assuming the lawsuit does not impact an early implementation. IRV is ideal for special elections because it compresses the traditional two-round process into a single election. The City Elections Department is planning to conduct IRV elections next year with a combination of existing machines to tally first choices and a supplemental hand count to tally races that require a runoff (those that don't meet the threshold for winning.

This means that if there is a winner in the mayoral race that gets a majority (50% + 1) of first choice votes, he or she is declared the winner and there's no runoff off. But if not, then a hand count would be conducted to complete the tallying process, i.e., until one of the candidate wins with a majority of votes.

This process could be ready to go for an early special election.

The prospect of a special election for mayor in Minneapolis next year raises the prospect of other possible special elections, should any of the sitting council members choose to run for mayor and vacate their seat.

According to the Minneapolis Charter (Ch. 2, Sec 16), the same special election rules apply to the vacancy in a council seat. A special election to complete the current term is required if the seat is vacated before March 1. If later (and before the election filing date), the council appoints a replacement from the ward to complete the vacated term. If the seat is vacated after the filing date, it looks like the seat goes unfilled and the winner of the November election takes immediate office. http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=11490&sid=23

Election intrigue continues.