“To establish the use of ranked choice voting in elections for the offices of Senator and Representative in Congress, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section designates the Act as the "Ranked Choice Voting Act" and states Congress's finding of constitutional authority under Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution to establish terms and conditions for states administering elections for Senators and Representatives.
This section requires each state to conduct elections for Senators and Representatives in Congress—including primaries, general elections on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November of even-numbered years (per current law), and special elections—using ranked choice voting, under which voters rank candidates by preference and ballots are tabulated iteratively by eliminating the lowest vote-getter until one candidate receives a majority. Ballots must allow voters to rank at least five candidates or the number filed (whichever is fewer), include all qualified candidates and write-in options (as permitted by state law), and provide instructions; undervotes (no rankings) are exhausted immediately, inactive ballots (all ranked candidates eliminated or exhausted due to ties) cease counting, and skipped or repeated rankings are skipped to the next valid preference. This section prohibits states from holding separate runoff elections after primary, general, or special election dates and permits nonpartisan blanket primaries only if at least three candidates advance to the general election. States need not hold a primary before the federal general election date if the winner is determined solely via ranked choice tabulation of votes cast that day. This section applies the requirements to the District of Columbia, territories, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, treating Delegates and Resident Commissioners as Representatives.
This section includes a severability clause, providing that if any provision of the Act or its amendments, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and its application to other persons or circumstances remains unaffected.