HB210 Summary

• Authorizes ranked choice voting (RCV) for all partisan primary elections, special elections, and nonpartisan general elections in Hawaii effective January 1, 2020.

• Allows voters to rank up to four candidates by preference on ballots; if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with fewest votes is eliminated and ballots are recalculated using voters' next preferences until one candidate achieves a majority.

• Requires the chief election officer and county clerks to adopt rules by December 31, 2019 for implementing RCV, including ballot design, voter education materials, and vote counting procedures.

• Specifies that ballots must include instructions stating that marking alternate choices cannot help defeat higher-ranked choices, and requires sample ballots to be publicly available for at least 15 days before printing.

• Permits acceleration of the counting process by eliminating candidates receiving less than one percent of first-choice votes and clarifies that exhausted ballots (those with no remaining ranked candidates) are not counted in subsequent tabulation rounds.