Bill > S1622

Introduced Session

This bill, the "Municipal and School Board Voting Options Act," allows municipalities and school boards in this State to adopt ranked choice voting for conducting their local elections under certain circumstances. Under the bill, "ranked-choice voting" means a method of voting in which each voter gets one vote, where voters rank multiple candidates in order of their preference, the ballots are counted in rounds, and the votes are counted and transferred to candidates according to the preferences marked on each ballot. Under the bill, for conducting and counting ranked-choice voting elections, the instant runoff method would be used for single winner races like mayor elected at-large or council or school board member elected from wards or districts, and the single transferable vote method would be used for multiple-winner races. The bill defines the terms necessary for implementing these two ranked-choice voting methods and the manner of counting the votes and declaring elected candidates. The bill provides that all municipal governing bodies and all school boards in this State would be permitted to adopt ranked-choice voting by adopting an ordinance or resolution, as appropriate, to be submitted to the voters for approval through a referendum on the ballot. The bill also allows the voters to place a direct petition on the ballot to adopt ranked choice voting, using the petition process currently established under current law for "Faulkner Act" municipalities. The direct petition would be submitted to the municipal clerk or clerks, as the case may be, and would be required to be signed by the legal voters equal in number to at least 10 percent of the total votes cast in the municipality or municipalities, as the case may be, at the last election at which members of the General Assembly were elected. The petition would include the proposed public question and a clear and concise interpretative statement explaining ranked-choice voting. If approved by the voters of the municipality or school district, all elections for the offices of mayor or a member of a municipal governing body, or a member of an elected school board, as appropriate, other than any primary election, would be conducted using ranked-choice voting. Finally, the bill directs the Division of Elections in the Department of State to adopt the rules and regulations necessary to effectuate its provisions and provide guidelines and technical rules to assist local election officials in implementing and counting a ranked choice voting election.

Committee Categories

Linda Greenstein (D)*,  Andrew Zwicker (D)*,  Vin Gopal (D),  Raj Mukherji (D),  Shirley Turner (D), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document