On July 10, the California Senate Elections Committee passed both AB 1294 and AB 1662. The first lets non-charter cities and counties use Instant-Runoff Voting for elections for their own officers (currently, only charter cities and counties may do so). AB 1662 lets overseas absentee voters use ranked-choice ballots when they are voting in election which normally have the possibility of an old-fashioned two-stage runoff.

These are the first two bills to advance IRV that have ever made this much headway in the California legislature. The two bills have already passed the Assembly.