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In "State must undo one-party rule" (Opinion Exchange, July 27) Jim Schultz advocated for divided government as part of your Minnesota's Future series. Great! But unfortunately, given our current system, this choice is only reliably available to voters once every four years — when governors aren't on the ballot. To empower voters to cast their ballots, if they choose, for divided government in every state election Minnesota needs structurally divided government ballot reform.
Since 1990 Minnesota has had divided government for all but two election cycles. Prior to the 2022 DFL sweep, the other "trifecta" came with Gov. Mark Dayton halfway through his first term in 2012, when Minnesota both voted down Republican marriage and voter ID amendments and threw out the Republican legislative majorities that had put those measures on the ballot.
Looking forward, Minnesota will only have a clear divided-government choice in 2024. DFL Gov. Tim Walz won't be on the ballot in that election, so divided government backers will be able, if they choose, to vote for a Republican state House candidate with the certainty that they're casting a vote for divided government.
So our current system does allow us a divided-government option as a mid-course correction. But in years when the governor is on the ballot, as well as one or both houses of the Legislature, things are not so simple. Voters can't know reliably in advance which party will control the governorship or the Legislature.
Lacking this knowledge, in years when the governor is on the ballot, voters can't choose, with confidence, to cast their votes for divided government. It's a guessing game.
There would be many ways to correct this. For now — to explore this idea — let's consider an imperfect but simple structurally divided government reform: