Vote Smart's Synopsis:

A vote to pass a bill that establishes ranked choice voting for special elections and partisan primary contests.

Highlights:

• Requires the ranked choice method be used in all of the following state or county election contests held in the State, including (Sec. 2):

• Partisan primary elections;

• Special elections; and

• Nonpartisan general elections.

• Requires the chief election officer to adopt rules to implement the use of mechanical, electronic, or other means devised for marking, sorting, and counting the ballots and tabulating and transferring the votes in an election using the ranked choice method (Sec. 2).

• Requires the ballots for an election using the ranked choice method to allow a voter to rank no more than four candidates for an office in order of preference (Sec. 2).

• Requires the chief election officer or county clerk in the case of a county election to print informational materials containing a sample ballot that depicts the official ballot to be used in the election and voting instructions and procedures for the election using the ranked choice method  (Sec. 2).

• Requires election officials to initially counthe ballots according to the first choice marked on each ballot when determining the winners in an election using the ranked choice methode (Sec. 2).

• Requires that if at the end of the initial count, one candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes cast, then that candidate is to be declared the winner for the office for which the candidate seeks elections (Sec. 2).

• Requires that if at the end of the initial count, no candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes cast, the chief election officer or county clerk, as applicable, to declare that no candidate has received a majority of first choice votes and that the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is defeated (Sec. 2).

• Requires the chief election or county clerk to recalculate the votes using the continuing candidate with the next highest ranking on each of the ballots for each voter who had selected a defeated candidate  (Sec. 2).

• Authorizes the ranked choice method to be accelerated, at the discretion of the chief election officer or county clerk, by eliminating all candidates with fewer than one percent of the first-choice votes cast (Sec. 2).

• Requires that each voter’s ballot will count for no more than one candidate per seat in each round of tabulation (Sec. 2).

• Defines “ranked choice method” as a method of casting and tabulating votes that tabulates a single vote for each voter but simulates the ballots counts that would occur if all voters participated in a series of runoff elections, whereby voters are allowed to rank candidates according to the voter’s preference and, if no candidate obtains a majority of first-choice voters, votes are transferred in sequential tabulations according to voters preferences (Sec. 3).

• Defines “ranking” as the number assigned on a ballot by a voter to a candidate in an election using the ranked choice method to express the voter’s preference for that candidate with the ranking of number one as the highest rank (Sec. 3).

• Defines “round” as an instance of the sequence of voting tabulation steps in an election using the ranked choice method (Sec. 3).

Full Bill Text