I have posted this proposal in PDF format in several places, and gotten crickets. No comments at all, even on the Floridians for Ranked Choice Voting Facebook page. Even when I’ve tagged in politicians and activists I know personally. So here it is in a note, that hopefully people will be more likely to read.
I cribbed most of this from the RCV language I am most familiar with, The Hugo Awards.
The Florida State Constitution shall be amended as follows:
Article VI, Section 1, statement 2 shall be amended by striking the words “plurality of votes cast” and adding the words “as described in Section 8”.
Article VI, Section 5, paragraph (2) shall be struck and replaced with “All qualified electors may vote for all offices in the primary election regardless of party affiliation.”
Section 8 shall be inserted as follows:
Section 8: Elections Tallying Process
8.0: Elections shall be conducted as a two step process. A primary election shall be conducted on the long list of all qualified candidates for an office to narrow the field to a final list of six finalists which shall be put before voters in the general election. The final number of candidates on the general election ballot may be expanded in order to deal with ties in the primary election, and give voters the maximum choice on the general election ballot, as described in section 8.2.
Primary Tallying Process
8.1: For each office, the finalist selection process shall be conducted as elimination rounds consisting of three phases:
(1) Calculation Phase: First, the total number of votes (the number of ballots on which each candidate appears) from all eligible ballots shall be tallied for each remaining candidate. Next, a single “point” shall be assigned to each ballot. That point shall be divided equally among all remaining candidates on that ballot. Finally, all points from all ballots shall be totaled for each candidate in that race. These two numbers, point total and number of votes, shall be used in the Selection and Elimination Phases.
(2) Selection Phase: The two nominees with the lowest point totals shall be selected for comparison in the Elimination Phase. (See 8.3 for ties.)
(3) Elimination Phase: Nominees chosen in the Selection Phase shall be compared, and the nominee with the fewest number of votes shall be eliminated and removed from all ballots for the Calculation Phase of all subsequent rounds. (See 8.3 for ties.)
8.2: The phases described in 8.1 are repeated in order for each race until not more than six finalists remain. If elimination would reduce the number of finalists to fewer than six, then instead no nominees will be eliminated during that round, and all remaining nominees shall appear on the final ballot, extending it if necessary.
8.3: Ties shall be handled as described below:
(1) During the Selection Phase, if two or more candidates are tied for the lowest point total, all such candidates shall be selected for the Elimination Phase.
(2) During the Selection Phase, if one candidate has the lowest point total and two or more candidates are tied for the second-lowest point total, then all such candidates shall be selected for the Elimination Phase.
(3) During the Elimination Phase, if two or more candidates are tied for the fewest number of votes, the candidate with the lowest point total at that round shall be eliminated.
(4) During the Elimination Phase, if two or more candidates are tied for both fewest number of votes and lowest point total, then all such candidates tied at that round shall be eliminated.
8.4: After the initial General Election ballot is generated, if any finalist(s) are removed for any reason, they will be replaced by other candidates in reverse order of elimination.
General Election tallying process
8.5: General Election Tallying of Votes.
Votes shall first be tallied by the voters’ first choices. If no majority is then obtained, the candidate with the fewest votes in the initial tallying shall be eliminated and the ballots listing that candidate as first choice shall be redistributed on the basis of those ballots’ second choices. This process shall be repeated until a majority-vote winner is obtained with at least 50%+1 vote of the final count. If two or more candidates are tied for elimination during this process then the candidate who received fewer first-place votes shall be eliminated. If they are still tied then all the tied candidates shall be eliminated together.
8.6: Ties
In the event of a tie for winner then the candidate with the fewest number of first place selections shall be eliminated. If the candidates remain tied then the final two candidates shall proceed to a run-off election.
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