Madison Reporter

The city of Madison, Wisconsin, has announced the names of its first electric trash trucks following a public voting process. The winning names are "Trash Gordon" and "Vin No Diesel." The selection was made through a ranked choice election hosted by Wisconsin Clean Cities.

In this election format, participants could rank up to five candidates from a list of 12 possible names for each truck. Ranked choice voting aims to identify a candidate with the most overall preference through elimination rounds. If no candidate receives over 50% of the first-choice votes in the initial round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed based on voters' subsequent choices. This process continues until one candidate achieves a majority or remains as one of two final candidates with the most votes.

Neither Trash Gordon nor Vin No Diesel received more than 50% of first-choice votes initially. However, both names advanced to the final elimination round where they were ultimately chosen as winners due to appearing on more ballots by the end of the election.

For those interested in learning more about ranked choice voting, resources such as videos from Minnesota Public Radio News and the State of Alaska Division of Elections are available online.

Further details about Madison's Streets Division services and its new electric trucks can be found on their updated website at www.cityofmadison.com/Streets.