HF3276 would give all cities, counties and school districts across Minnesota the ability to implement ranked-choice voting for their elections. But with just 66 DFL legislators voting to support the “local options” ranked-choice voting proposal on the last day of session, the bill fell short of the 68 votes required to pass in the House of Representatives.

The three House DFLers who cast ‘no” votes were: Gene Pelowski of Winona, Rick Hanson of South St. Paul and Michael Nelson of Brooklyn Park — none of whom rose to explain their opposition to the bill during a floor debate.

News that the bill had failed on the House floor was disappointing to professional and volunteer activists with FairVote Minnesota, an organization that takes in well more than $1 million annually to help turn Minnesota into a ranked-choice voting state, among other progressive voter reform issues it champions.