Reform Fargo

parent: Advocacy

Reform Fargo is a successful campaign to institute approval voting in the city of Fargo, North Dakota. In 2018, the city adopted approval voting into law, and in 2020, held its first election using approval. Reform Fargo continues to help educate voters on how to use of approval voting, to ensure that future support for the decision remains strong.

History

Before approval

A previous city commissioner election in 2015 suffered from six-way vote-splitting, resulting in a candidate winning with only a 22% plurality of the vote.

Campaign

"Reform Fargo" was created in 2018 to institute approval voting in the city of Fargo. The ballot initiative passed.

The Reform Fargo campaign needed 1,349 signatures for the ballot measure, and was able to collect 1,923 valid signatures.

The ballot initiative positioned in the City of Fargo itself, including its mayor, four city commissioners, and municipal judge. (It is thus being used for both single-winner and multi-winner elections. Each commissioner is elected at-large, representing the entire city.)

The city of Fargo adopted Approval voting in November 2018, with a 64% majority in favor.

Elections

main article: Fargo, North Dakota # Elections

The first election to use approval voting occurred in 2020, as two commissioners' terms expire in June 2020. The terms of the current mayor and the other two commissioners expire in June 2022. The current municipal judge was elected in 2012 and serves four-year terms.

External links

• https://reformfargo.org/