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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 1536
AN ACT CONCERNING THE USE OF RANKED -CHOICE VOTING IN
PARTY CAUCUSES, CONVENTIONS AND PRIMARIES, INCLUDING
PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE PRIMARIES, AND IN CERTAIN
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes ranked choice voting (RCV) for presidential
preference primaries starting January 1, 2028, and for municipal
elections and all other primaries starting January 1, 2027, except when
prohibited by the state’s election laws. Under the bill, RCV is a system
of casting and counting votes for a particular office where (1) each voter
can rank candidates based on their preferences (with “1” indicating their
highest preference), (2) one or more rounds of counting are used to
determine which candidates advance to the next round of tabulation
based on those preferences, and (3) the candidate with the greatest
number of votes after all rounds of counting wins.
Specifically, starting in 2027, for offices where only one candidate is
chosen, the bill authorizes municipalities to adopt RCV by charter or
ordinance for municipal elections, and major parties to adopt RCV for
primaries under their party rules. A municipality or major party must
implement the bill’s procedures when adopting RCV. As under existing
law, unchanged by the bill, candidates for offices or party nominations
not subject to RCV must receive a plurality of votes (i.e. the most).
The bill also establishes specific procedures for implementing RCV
generally and, starting in 2028, for major parties adopting it for
presidential preference primaries under their party rules. It also makes
corresponding changes for political party nominating conventions
using RCV.
Lastly, the bill makes technical and conforming changes. 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2027
§ 1 — RCV GENERAL ADMINIST RATION
Ballots and Tabulators
The bill requires the secretary of the state to set the type of ballot to
be used in authorized RCV elections or primaries, its layout and
orientation, and any instructions appearing on it. Further, any RCV
ballot must be approved by the secretary.
The bill requires an RCV ballot, if possible, to list all qualified
candidates in a manner allowing voters to rank them by order of
preference. If it is not possible to do so, the secretary must allow voters
to rank at least five candidates, and must uniformly apply this limitation
to all eligible voters for that office.
For primaries, candidates must be ordered on the ballot as existing
law requires (see BACKGROUND). For municipal elections, existing
law considers a candidate’s party designation to (1) determine the
candidate’s order on the ballot, (2) determine whether a party achieved
minor party status for a particular race (see BACKGROUND), and (3)
allow for cross endorsements. For these purposes, the bill requires RCV
ballots to indicate a candidate’s party designation, allowing voters to
rank candidates under a specific designation.
Relatedly, state law requires that voting tabulators be able to process
ballots under certain conditions and produce certain voting
information, such as preventing a voter from voting for more than one
candidate for the same office unless otherwise allowed. The bill requires
that voting tabulators used for authorized RCV primaries and elections
be able to comply with the bill’s procedures.
Procedures
The bill establishes the following requirements for RCV contests in
which voters nominate or elect only one candidate.
Voting Tabulation. In the first round of counting, the bill requires
that a ballot be counted for the highest-ranked active candidate. Under
the bill, an “active candidate” is a candidate on the ballot (or registered 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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as a write-in candidate) who has not won, been eliminated in an earlier
round, or withdrawn.
If three or more active candidates remain after the first round, the
active candidate with the fewest votes after all votes have been
tabulated is eliminated, and the remaining active candidates proceed to
the next round. The votes for the eliminated candidate are transferred
to the remaining active candidates based on the rank expressed on the
ballots. This process continues until there are less than three active
candidates. Once this has occurred, the active candidate with the most
votes wins.
Tie Votes. If there is a tie between the candidates with the fewest
votes, and one must be eliminated, the elimination is determined by lot,
as set in the secretary’s regulations that she must adopt (see below). If
there is a tie between the final two candidates, the tie is broken in
accordance with the applicable state law.
Voter Ranking Issues. Under the bill, a voter’s ballot is not counted
if it ranks no active candidate (i.e. an undervote). If a ballot skips a
number when ranking candidates or ranks the same candidate at
different ranks (e.g., cross-endorsed candidates), the ballot is counted
for the highest-ranked active candidate. If all the candidates a voter
ranked are no longer active, or if a voter ranked two candidates at the
same level (e.g., ranked two different candidates as their second choice)
and all higher-ranked candidates are no longer active (i.e. an inactive
ballot), the voter’s ballot is no longer counted.
Recanvass. Existing law generally requires that if the difference in
votes between the top two candidates is (1) less than 0.5% of the total
number of votes cast for the office, but not more than 1,000 votes for a
primary or not more than 2,000 votes for an election, or (2) less than 20
votes, a recanvass (i.e. recount) must be conducted. To determine if an
automatic recount is triggered under these provisions for an RCV
election or primary, the bill requires evaluating the difference between
the total votes of the winning candidate and the remaining active
candidate. 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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Regulations
The secretary of the state must adopt regulations to implement these
provisions.
§§ 3 & 4 — PARTY CONVENTION-SPECIFIC PROVISIONS
When a major party adopts RCV as part of its rules, the bill requires
that the party’s chairperson or authorized representative notify the
secretary of the state, or her designee, in accordance with the process
and timeline she established.
For parties that have adopted RCV, the bill also establishes certain
exemptions or procedures when endorsing candidates for nomination
to state or district office or state legislator at political party conventions.
Specifically, the provisions below apply when choosing among three or
more candidates and only one candidate may be endorsed (a covered
convention).
Voting and Records. Whenever a vote is taken on a party’s
endorsement between two or more candidates, current law requires the
convention’s clerk or secretary to conduct it by roll call and record each
delegate’s vote. The bill eliminates this requirement for covered
conventions.
Additionally, similar to the existing law for roll call votes, the bill
requires a convention’s clerk or secretary to (1) keep an accurate written
record of the vote totals received by each active candidate in each RCV
round, as well as the round-by-round totals; (2) announce the round-by-
round and final results; and (3) file these records at the state central
committee headquarters. The records must be kept for at least 180 days
after the convention adjourns and be available for public inspection at
all reasonable times.
Eligibility Threshold. Various state laws require candidates to
receive a certain percentage of any roll call vote at a convention in order
to meet the law’s requirements. For example, the law allows any
candidate who received at least 15% of the vote to qualify to run in the
party’s primary. The law also requires a candidate to receive at least 15% 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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of the vote in order to qualify for a public campaign finance grant from
the Citizens’ Election Program. The bill specifies that in these and other
similar situations under state law, the required percentage may be
calculated based on the percentage of votes a candidate received in any
RCV round at a covered convention.
§§ 5-7 — PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE PRIMARY
A presidential preference primary is a type of primary election in
which voters indicate their preference for a particular candidate to be
the party’s nominee for the presidency. State law requires the parties
with the largest and second-largest number of enrolled members in the
state to hold a presidential preference primary if the names of two or
more candidates are placed on the party’s ballot (CGS §§ 9-463 & -464).
In a presidential preference primary, voters do not directly select the
party’s nominee. Instead, they vote for a particular candidate, and based
on the vote results, state parties award delegates based on the party’s
system of allocating delegates. These delegates then vote to formally
select a candidate as the presidential nominee at the party’s national
convention.
Applicable Laws (§ 6)
The law generally requires that presidential preference primaries,
including any tabulations or generation of returns, be conducted, as
nearly as practicable, in a manner set by the secretary of the state, with
the state’s laws on absentee balloting and political party nominations.
Currently, they must do so unless the state’s laws concerning
presidential primaries say otherwise. The bill also requires these
primaries be conducted under these laws unless required otherwise to
implement RCV as the bill defines it.
Delegate Certification (§ 5)
By law, a party’s chairman must submit a written certification to the
secretary of the state with the number of delegates the party is entitled
to under its rules. If any delegates are to be chosen from districts, the
certification must also include the number of delegates allocated to each
district and the number selected at large. 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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Additionally, the law allows a party to make rules (1) establishing a
formula for allocating delegates based on the percentage of the vote they
receive or (2) for the candidate with the most votes to receive all the
delegates (i.e. winner-take-all). If a formula is used, the chairman must
include it in the certification along with all necessary information to
apply it. The secretary may request a written interpretation or
explanation of the formula’s application.
Currently, this certification must be submitted at least 14 days before
a primary. The bill instead requires the secretary to establish the process
and deadline for these certifications.
By law, if the chairman does not certify to the secretary how the
delegates will be distributed, the secretary must determine the
allocation of delegates generally in accordance with the party rules. The
law, unchanged by the bill, establishes procedures for the secretary to
make this determination when RCV is not used.
Allocating Delegates (§§ 5 & 7)
Party Rules (§ 5). The bill allows a party to authorize RCV through
its rules starting in 2028. If it does so, it must use RCV to allocate its
delegates. The rules may establish procedures for awarding delegates
based on RCV (whether by formula or winner-take-all). If the rules
authorize a formula, it must be included in the certification along with
the necessary information to apply it. The secretary may additionally
request a written interpretation or explanation of a party’s RCV rules or
formula.
Secretary Determination (§ 7). The bill establishes alternative
allocation procedures for major parties that permit RCV but have not
certified how its delegates will be allocated. As under existing law,
under the bill, the secretary must determine (1) the number of delegates
to be awarded at large, (2) those to be awarded by district (if any), and
(3) the percentage of the vote received by each candidate in the state and
each district. Each ballot must initially be deemed to count for the
highest-ranked candidate and the vote awarded to delegates pledged to
vote for that candidate, as required under the applicable party’s rules or 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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state law.
By law, the secretary must also determine the number of votes cast
for each candidate and the total number of votes cast, including the
totals of each district, if applicable. Under the bill, for RCV primaries,
these totals must be based on the final tabulation of votes.
To receive any delegates, a candidate must receive at least 15% of the
total vote in the entire state or a specific district, as applicable. The
tabulation is considered complete if the vote total for all active
candidates is 15% or greater. If any active candidate has less than 15%,
the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and that candidate’s
votes are transferred to the candidates ranked next by each ballot. Any
rankings for withdrawn candidates are treated as rankings for
eliminated candidates.
Once the tabulation is complete, the secretary must calculate the
number of delegates to be awarded for each candidate by multiplying
each candidate’s vote percentage by the total number of delegates to be
selected, rounding off to the nearest whole number.
If, due to the rounding, the total number of awarded delegates for all
candidates does not match the authorized number of delegates, the
secretary must add or subtract a delegate, as necessary, from the
candidate who had the largest difference between the calculated
number and the rounded number. She must continue this process for
the candidates with the next largest differences until the number of
allocated delegates equals the authorized number.
Secretary’s Instructions (§ 6)
The bill requires the secretary to issue and publish on her office’s
website written instructions for implementing policies and procedures
regarding tabulating and publishing preliminary, round-by-round, and
final RCV results. (The bill does not establish a deadline by which the
secretary must do so.) The instructions must also require that if a
candidate withdraws on the day of the primary as allowed by law, any
ballot cast before the primary ranking that candidate first must be 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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counted as a vote for the next-highest-ranked candidate on the ballot.
The instructions must also account for certain procedures requested
in writing by a party’s chairman if the party uses RCV. The secretary
must do so if the requested procedures are reasonable, compatible with
the use of RCV ballots, and can be implemented using existing voting
tabulators, including any associated hardware and software.
BACKGROUND
Ballot Order for Primary Candidates
State law generally requires the secretary to (1) place the party-
endorsed candidate in the first row of the ballot and mark the name with
an asterisk and (2) order all other candidates alphabetically based on the
candidate’s last name (CGS § 9-437).
Minor Party Status
Under Connecticut’s election system, candidates running for office
can get their names on the ballot in one of three ways: (1) nomination by
a major party, (2) nomination by a minor party, and (3) nomination by a
nominating petition. The law differentiates how a candidate may gain
ballot access depending on whether the party is major or minor.
Under current law, a “minor party” is one that is not a major party
and whose candidate for the office in question received, under the same
party designation, at least 1% of the votes cast for the same office at the
last regular election. In other words, unlike major parties, minor parties
qualify for ballot access on a case-by-case basis and cannot nominate
candidates to offices for which they have not achieved minor party
status.
By law, if the party does not have minor party status for a particular
office, a person may run under the party’s designation only by
submitting a signed petition to the secretary of the state. Under current
law, it must be signed by (1) 1% of the qualified electors for the same
office in the last-preceding election or (2) 7,500 qualified electors (1% is
usually the lower threshold and therefore the one most petitioners must
meet). For example, if a person is running for state senator, the petition 2025SB-01536-R000675-BA.DOCX
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must be signed by a total number of voters that equals 1% of all the
voters that cast a ballot for the same state senate race in the last election.
Related Bill
sSB 1156, favorably reported by the Government Administration and
Elections Committee, allows minor parties to nominate candidates for
all elections if any candidate running for statewide office under that
party’s designation receives at least 1% of the vote for that office.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Government Administration and Elections Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 13 Nay 6 (03/27/2025)