HSB 183

This bill provides for ranked choice voting for city elections. The bill allows a city to adopt ranked choice voting by ordinance for city elections. Ranked choice voting is a method of casting and tabulating votes in which voters rank candidates in order of preference and tabulation proceeds in rounds in which candidates are eliminated and votes redistributed until the number of candidates remaining is equal to or less than the number of offices to be filled. The bill includes procedures for the tabulation of ballots and redistribution of votes and requires the state commissioner of elections to adopt rules to provide for the tallying, canvassing, and tabulation of ballots for an office elected by ranked choice voting. The bill also requires the state commissioner of elections, after consultation with county commissioners of elections, to adopt rules for the release of preliminary round-by-round results and cast vote records in ranked choice voting elections. In addition to information currently required by law, the bill requires a report of the final results of a ranked choice voting election to include the total number of votes each candidate received in each round of the official tabulation, including votes for withdrawn candidates, the total number of ballots that became inactive in each round because they did not contain any active candidates, reached an overvote, or reached two consecutive skipped rankings, reported as separate figures, and the cast vote records in a publicly accessible, electronic format that is identifiable by precinct to the extent such identification can be provided consistent with voter privacy. _____ elections that are held on or after January 1, 2024, that are also held or more days after adoption of an ordinance to use ranked choice voting, as specified in the ordinance.