S.F. No. 4265 - Ranked-Choice Voting Summary

• Requires ranked-choice voting for all federal, state constitutional, and legislative elections in Minnesota, effective for primaries and general elections statewide.

• Authorizes cities, counties, townships, and school districts to voluntarily adopt ranked-choice voting for local elections through ordinance, resolution, or ballot question, with adoption required at least 30 days before candidate filing deadlines.

• Establishes detailed tabulation procedures including threshold calculation, surplus vote transfers, batch elimination of mathematically impossible candidates, and tie resolution by lot.

• Requires ballots to allow voters to rank at least three candidates per office, mandates a single ranked-choice voting tabulation center per jurisdiction, and provides procedures for reporting results and conducting recounts.

• Appropriates $1,450,000 for fiscal year 2023, with $1,250,000 distributed as grants to local governments for equipment upgrades and public education campaigns on ranked-choice voting.