"Outreach effort explains Minneapolis elections to homeless-and the complications of ranked-choice"

Voter-registration outreach efforts directed at often-disenfranchised communities, including the homeless, are not unusual, but this year there’s a new twist: explaining ranked-choice voting.

“You pick your top three choices. You use all three. That’s really the main thing people have to know,’’ advised John Knowland recently from his perch behind a voter registration table at Catholic Charities Opportunity Center, a drop-in center for the homeless at 17th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis.

With pre-voter registration finished, over the next weeks until Election Day on Nov. 5 there will be workshops and Q-and-A sessions on ranked-choice voting, Minneapolis’ new take on electing a mayor and members to the City Council, Park Board and the Board of Estimate and Taxation.

But for many it seems more complicated than that. The ballot looks different for one thing, and why should they vote for all three anyway? And considering the problems of finding food and shelter, why should the homeless concern themselves with an election at all, much less the ins and outs of ranked-choice voting?