AB 563

Top-five primaries for certain national offices

Under current law, electors voting in a partisan primary may select the party

whose candidates they wish to vote for and may cast votes for candidates only within

that political party. The single candidate who receives the greatest number of votes

for each office within each party is nominated to appear on the general election ballot.

Independent candidates and candidates of minor parties that do not qualify for a

separate party ballot, column, or row do not appear on the partisan primary ballot.

This bill provides that electors may vote in the primary for U.S. senator and

representative in Congress for any candidate regardless of party affiliation, and the

five persons who receive the greatest numbers of votes for each such office are

nominated to appear on the general election ballot. Under the bill, independent

candidates for such offices and candidates of minor parties appear on the top-five

primary ballot, and electors may vote for these candidates in the same manner as

other candidates.

Instant runoff voting for certain national offices in general elections

The bill requires instant runoff voting at the general election for U.S. senator

and representative in Congress. Under instant runoff voting, voters use a

ranked-choice ballot and have the option to cast their vote for each office in order of

preference. If a voter ranks more than one candidate for an office, the voter must

indicate a preference between the candidates by designating one as “first choice,"

another as “second choice," and subsequent choices in sequential preference. A voter

may also indicate as one of their preferences a write-in candidate for any office.

Under the bill an instant runoff is used to determine the candidate elected. All

votes are tallied and the candidate with fewest first-choice preferences is

eliminated. A voter who has chosen that candidate has his or her single vote

transferred to the voter's second-choice preference. The votes are tallied again and

this process continues until there are two remaining candidates. At that point, the

candidate with a majority of the combined first-choice and reallocated preferences

wins.