Vermont H 363: An act relating to campaign expenditures and candidate salaries

Bill Text

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H.363 1
Introduced by Representatives Hooper of Burlington and Nugent of South 2
Burlington 3
Referred to Committee on 4
Date: 5
Subject: Elections; local elections; ranked-choice voting 6
Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to permit towns, 7
cities, and villages to opt-in to a uniform ranked-choice voting system for 8
elections of candidates running for single-seat offices. 9
An act relating to town, city, and village elections for single-seat offices 10
using ranked-choice voting 11
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont: 12
Sec. 1. 17 V.S.A. chapter 55, subchapter 4 is added to read: 13
Subchapter 4. Ranked-Choice Voting 14
§ 2691a. DEFINITIONS 15
As used in this subchapter: 16
(1) “Candidate” means a candidate running for a single-seat office in a 17
town, city, or village that has adopted the ranked-choice voting system 18
pursuant to section 2691b of this title. 19

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(2) “Candidate pairing” means a unique dyadic arrangement of two 1
different candidates contending for an office in an election. If N is the number 2
of candidates contending for an office, then the number of candidate pairings is 3
N(N-1)/2. 4
(3) “Consistent majority winner” means the sole candidate who is the 5
winning candidate in every paired comparison among all candidates. 6
(4) “Paired comparison” or “head-to-head comparison” means an 7
evaluation of two candidates for the purpose of determining which candidate 8
has the greater number of ballots ranking that candidate over the other 9
candidate in the pair. 10
(5) “Plurality” means the election outcome in which one candidate 11
receives more votes than any other candidate, but not necessarily a majority of 12
the votes cast. 13
(6) “Presiding officer” means the town clerk or an alternative official as 14
provided for in section 2452 of this title. 15
§ 2691b. RANKED-CHOICE VOTING SYSTEM; APPLICATION 16
(a) Application. Unless otherwise specified by State law, the provisions of 17
the ranked-choice voting system described in this subchapter shall not apply to 18
the election of a candidate running for a single-seat office in a town, city, or 19
village unless that town, city, or village votes, at its annual meeting or at a 20
special meeting called for that purpose, to have those provisions apply. 21

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(b) Duration. Once a town, city, or village votes to adopt the ranked-choice 1
voting system described in this subchapter, this ranked-choice voting system 2
shall be used in that manner until the town, city, or village votes to discontinue 3
use of the system. 4
(c) Australian ballot system. In order to begin using a ranked-choice 5
voting system, a town, city, or village must be using the Australian ballot 6
system, pursuant to section 2680 of this title, at the time of an election using a 7
ranked-choice voting system. 8
§ 2691c. RANKED-CHOICE VOTING SYSTEM; BALLOTS 9
(a) Form of ballot. Notwithstanding any contrary provisions in section 10
2681a of this title, a ballot for an election using the ranked-choice system in a 11
town, city, or village shall allow voters to rank candidates in order of ordinal 12
preference. The names of all candidates on the ballot shall be listed in 13
alphabetical order. The ballot shall allow voters to assign rankings to 14
candidates that are equal to the number of printed candidate names and blank 15
write-in lines. 16
(b) Counting votes. 17
(1) A ballot assigning a candidate a lower ordinal preference shall be 18
considered to have assigned a higher ranking to that candidate than to a 19
candidate who was assigned a higher ordinal preference. A ballot assigning a 20
candidate with the lowest ordinal rank shall be considered to have designated 21

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that candidate as the highest-ranked candidate on that ballot and the voter’s 1
first-ranked preference. 2
(2) A voter may assign multiple candidates the same ranking. 3
(3) Any candidate not assigned a ranking on a ballot shall be considered 4
to have a lower ranking than every candidate assigned with any ordinal 5
ranking. 6
§ 2691d. RANKED-CHOICE VOTING SYSTEM; IMPLEMENTATION 7
(a) Implementation. A town, city, or village that has adopted the ranked-8
choice voting system pursuant to section 2691b of this title shall implement its 9
elections of candidates running for single-seat offices in that town, city, or 10
village in accordance with this section. 11
(b) Tabulation at polling places. All elections using the ranked-choice 12
voting system shall be tabulated at polling places by the presiding officer. 13
(c) Initial tabulation. Upon tabulation of the ballots, if a candidate receives 14
a majority of first-ranked preferences, that candidate is declared the winner of 15
the election. 16
(d) Additional