SB 140 - Under this act, all candidates for local office shall be elected through the method of ranked-choice voting, a method by which voters rank candidates for a particular office based on his or her preference for that candidate. In determining the winner of an election using ranked-choice voting, election judges are required to count votes in rounds. In each round, the candidate which receives the least amount of votes is eliminated and a new round shall begin with only continuing candidates. Voters who chose an eliminated candidate as their highest-ranked candidate will have their next highest-ranked candidate count as their vote in the following round. Once there is a round with only two continuing candidates, the candidate that receives the most votes is the winner. If at any time during the counting of votes any candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, that candidate is declared the winner. The provisions of this act take effect January 1, 2018 and only apply to primary elections.
SCOTT SVAGERA