Proportional ranked choice voting legislation
Legislation adopting proportional ranked choice voting can be as simple as a statement that elections will be conducted by ranked choice voting. In fact, the “minimum proposal” described in 2.2 Proportional ranked choice voting takes that approach:
The Act entitled ‘An Act for the relief of Doctor Ricardo Vallejo Samala and to provide for congressional redistricting’, approved December 14, 1967 (2 U.S.C. 2c), is amended by striking ‘In each State’ and all that follows and inserting the following:
“Sec. 2 Congressional Redistricting
In each State, entitled in the 118th Congress or in any subsequent Congress thereafter to 5 or fewer Representatives under an apportionment made pursuant to the provisions of section 2a(a) of this title, the State shall elect all such Representatives from a single at large district.
In each State, entitled in the 118th Congress or in any subsequent Congress thereafter to 6 or more Representatives under an apportionment made pursuant to the provisions of section 2a(a) of this title, there shall be established by law a number of districts that is less than the number of Representatives to which such State is so entitled, and Representatives shall be elected only from districts so established, no district to elect fewer than 3 Representatives.
Sec. 3 Ranked-Choice Voting
Each State shall elect all Representatives to which such State is entitled by the method of Ranked-Choice Voting known as the Weighted Inclusive Gregory Method. In each State, there shall be established by law a ballot format and rules for casting and counting the votes consistent with this method.”
A law at this level of detail would then need to be fleshed out with additional legislation or rulemaking. When cities and states pass legislation including proportional ranked choice voting, they usually include more detail than this. Legislation generally includes at least the following:
- A statement of which offices will be elected by ranked choice voting;
- A description of the ballot, including how many rankings will be provided;
- A detailed description of tabulation rules, often for both a single winner (“instant runoff voting”) and for multiple winners (“proportional ranked choice voting” or the “single transferable vote”); and
- A definitions section, explaining terminology used elsewhere in the legislation.
Additionally, legislation may include other elements, including:
- New rules for districting, if switching from single-winner to multi-winner districts or otherwise changing district magnitude;
- Guidance for election results reporting, including preliminary results while ballots are still being counted;
- Rulemaking authority for filling in gaps or making defined changes to ballot layout or tabulation rules.
FairVote, the national leader on ranked choice voting, provides model legislation including most of these elements that can be easily adapted for the state, local or national context. The Fair Representation Act also provides an example of congressional legislation adopting proportional ranked choice voting for all House elections.
For examples of bills introduced in Congress that would allow or require any form of proportional or semi-proportional voting for Congress, see PR proposals in Congress.