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Florida General Election Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative (2022)
| Florida General Election Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 8, 2022 | |
| Topic Elections and campaigns and Voting policy measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Florida General Election Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative (Initiative #21-01) was not on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022.[1]
Measure design
The measure would have established a ranked-choice voting for all general elections in Florida.[1]
A ranked-choice voting system (RCV) is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots.[2][3]
Under the ranked-choice voting system proposed by the initiative:
- Voters rank the candidates for a given office by preference on their ballots.
- If a candidate wins an outright majority of first-preference votes (i=50 % plus one or above), he or she will be declared the winner.
- If no candidates win an outright majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
- All first-preference votes for the failed candidate are eliminated and a voter's choice would be moved to their next preferred candidate.
- A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won an outright majority of the adjusted voters.
- The process is repeated until a candidate wins a majority of votes cast.
Text of measure
Ballot title
The proposed title was as follows:[4]
| “ | Ranked Choice Voting in all General Elections[5] | ” |
Ballot summary
The proposed ballot summary was as follows:[4]
| “ | Allows voters to rank candidates by preference in all general elections. Initially votes are
tallied as normal, with only first choice votes being counted. If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes has their votes moved to voter’s next choice. This process repeats until a candidate receives a majority of all counted votes. Votes removed with no alternate assignments are not counted.[5] |
” |
Full text
The full text is available here.
Sponsors
Floridians for Free and Fair Elections sponsored the initiative.[4]
Background
Ranked-choice voting in the United States
- See also: Ranked-choice voting (RCV)
As of March 2021, one state (Maine) had implemented RCV at the state level, and one state (Alaska) had adopted but not implemented RCV. Another eight states contained jurisdictions that had implemented RCV at some level. Another six states contained jurisdictions that had adopted but not yet implemented RCV in local elections. See the map and table below for further details.[6]
| Ranked-choice voting usage in the United States, as of 2020 | |
|---|---|
| State | Ranked-choice voting |
| Alabama | No |
| Alaska | Adopted but not implemented for federal and state elections |
| Arizona | No |
| Arkansas | No |
| California | Yes; Oakland, San Francisco, San Leandro, Berkeley, Albany (adopted for 2022 implementation), Eureka (adopted for 2022 implementation), Palm Desert (adopted for 2022 implementation) |
| Colorado | Yes; Telluride, Basalt, Carbondale, and Boulder (adopted for 2023 implementation) |
| Connecticut | No |
| Delaware | No |
| Florida | Adopted but not implemented; Sarasota |
| Georgia | No |
| Hawaii | No |
| Idaho | No |
| Illinois | No |
| Indiana | No |
| Iowa | No |
| Kansas | No |
| Kentucky | No |
| Louisiana | No |
| Maine | Yes; Federal[7] and state elections Municipal elections in Portland |
| Maryland | Yes; Takoma Park |
| Massachusetts | Yes; Cambridge, Amherst (adopted but not implemented), Easthampton (adopted but not implemented) |
| Michigan | Yes; Eastpointe Adopted but not implemented; Ferndale |
| Minnesota | Yes; Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park, Bloomington (adopted for 2021 implementation), and Minnetonka (adopted for 2021 implementation) |
| Mississippi | No |
| Missouri | No |
| Montana | No |
| Nebraska | No |
| Nevada | No |
| New Hampshire | No |
| New Jersey | No |
| New Mexico | Yes; Santa Fe and Las Cruces |
| New York | Yes; New York City |
| North Carolina | No |
| North Dakota | No |
| Ohio | No |
| Oklahoma | No |
| Oregon | Adopted but not implemented; Benton County |
| Pennsylvania | No |
| Rhode Island | No |
| South Carolina | No |
| South Dakota | No |
| Tennessee | Adopted but not implemented; Memphis |
| Texas | No |
| Utah | Pilot program allowing for municipalities to use ranked-choice voting in 2019 elections (participating cities: Payson and Vineyard) |
| Vermont | Adopted but not implemented; Burlington |
| Virginia | Adopted in 2020 allowing cities to opt in to use RCV beginning in 2021. |
| Washington | No |
| West Virginia | No |
| Wisconsin | No |
| Wyoming | No |
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Florida, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 8% of the votes cast in the preceding presidential election. Florida also has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equaling at least 8% of the district-wide vote in the last presidential election be collected from at least half (14) of the state's 28 congressional districts. Signatures remain valid until February 1 of an even-numbered year.[8] Signatures must be verified by February 1 of the general election year the initiative aims to appear on the ballot.
Proposed measures are reviewed by the state attorney general and state supreme court after proponents collect 25% of the required signatures across the state in each of one-half of the state's congressional districts (222,898 signatures for 2024 ballot measures). After these preliminary signatures have been collected, the secretary of state must submit the proposal to the Florida Attorney General and the Financial Impact Estimating Conference (FIEC). The attorney general is required to petition the Florida Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on the measure's compliance with the single-subject rule, the appropriateness of the title and summary, and whether or not the measure "is facially invalid under the United States Constitution."[9]
The requirements to get an initiative certified for the 2022 ballot:
- Signatures: 891,589 valid signatures
- Deadline: The deadline for signature verification was February 1, 2022. As election officials have 30 days to check signatures, petitions should be submitted at least one month before the verification deadline.
In Florida, proponents of an initiative file signatures with local elections supervisors, who are responsible for verifying signatures. Supervisors are permitted to use random sampling if the process can estimate the number of valid signatures with 99.5% accuracy. Enough signatures are considered valid if the random sample estimates that at least 115% of the required number of signatures are valid.
Details about the initiative
- The initiative was sponsored by Floridians for Free and Fair Elections. It was approved for circulation on April 8, 2021. It was withdrawn on January 18, 2022.[4]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Florida Department of Elections, "Initiative 21-01 text," accessed April 13, 2021
- ↑ FairVote, "Electoral Systems," accessed July 7, 2017
- ↑ MinneapolisMN.gov, "Frequently Asked Questions about Ranked-Choice Voting," accessed July 7, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedinitiative - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ FairVote, "Where RCV Is Used," accessed May 18, 2018
- ↑ This includes the presidential election.
- ↑ Before the passage of Florida Senate Bill 1794 of 2020, signatures remained valid for a period of two years
- ↑ Florida State Senate, "Florida Senate Bill 1794," accessed April 13, 2020
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