Georgia Senate Passes Bill to Use Ranked Choice Voting in General Elections for Overseas Voters

On March 8, the Georgia Senate passed SB 202 by 32-20. It would provide that overseas absentee voters use ranked choice voting in general elections for partisan office. It would also move the date for general election run-offs for all other voters from nine weeks after the general election, to four weeks after the general election.

Thus, if the bill would have been in effect in 2020, the two U.S. Senate general election runoffs would not have been on January 5, 2021. They would have been on December 1, 2020. Generally Republicans Senators voted for the bill, and Democratic Senators voted against it.

The bill also provides that future special elections would have partisan nominees. Currently, Georgia special elections have no party nominees. Candidates file and get on the ballot for the special election as individuals, and no one needs a petition. That is why in Georgia’s special election for the short U.S. Senate seat last year had a Green Party member (labelled as such) on the ballot, the first time the Green Party had ever had a candidate with the party label on the ballot for a Georgia congressional race. See this story about the bill. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.


Comments

Georgia Senate Passes Bill to Use Ranked Choice Voting in General Elections for Overseas Voters — 30 Comments

  1. Interesting.

    So, overseas and military voters would rank their choices without knowing who would be in the runoffs.

    It might be just easier and less expensive just to eliminate the runoff, and have ranked choice voting for everyone in one election.

  2. @WZ,

    AL, AR, LA, MS, and SC.

    In theses states it is for the primary runoff. In Georgia it would have been for both primary and general election runoffs.

  3. @ JR

    Thanks. So RCV is actually used in more states (under special circumstances) than is generally known.

  4. Per Walter … is there any sort of 14th Amendment issue here in treating overseas and local voters differently in the same election?

  5. The one-party dictatorship male-dominated voting system, ranked choice voting in single-winner election districts, is the absolute worse idea to ever come and FairVote should go back and undo all the damage before they ever get any serious consideration of their rotten scheme which harms everyone.

    No way to one-party system. Never. America is a melting. Are we crazy?

  6. “male-dominated”

    More women voted than men in the 2020 presidential election so your comment is false.

    56 percent of women voted for Biden. Trump won among men 49 to 48 percent.

    If you want more women in politics you can expect more idiotic Democrat policies ruining the country and maintaining the statist status quo.

  7. Socratic Gadfly, the 14th amendment equal protection clause has been interpreted to ban only discrimination that injures some discrete group. There are hundreds of thousands of laws and government practices that treat different groups differently, so if the 14th amendment were interpreted really strictly, the list of unconstitutional laws would be extremely long.

    It doesn’t really injure either group of voters (overseas, or regular) to treat them differently.

  8. @WZ,

    I knew, DR knew, Fairvote uses this in their propaganda. You didn’t know. Is that general?

    Usually this is only for runoffs, which are mostly in the South for primaries.

    Louisiana did use this system when they retrogressed to partisan primaries for Congress. So that year there were possibility for three elections roughly a month apart.

    Because Louisiana does not permit write-in votes, the potential candidates for the general election were known as soon as the filing was completed.

    There was a complicated, but rational system to decide which ballots to send out.

    So let’s say your district had 3R, 2D, and 1L candidates. If you were an R overseas voter, you would receive a Primary ballot listing all 3 R candidates, a Primary runoff ballot where you could rank all 3 R candidates, and a general election ballot with all 6 candidates.

    If you were a D voter, you would get a primary ballot, and a general election ballot, since there could not be a primary runoff.

    If you were an L, N, or O voter, you would only get the general election ballot.

    The SOS worked this out in chart form for each congressional district.

  9. @SG,

    A state may treat different classes of persons differently if there is a rational basis for doing so.

    I’m not sure of the mechanics, but if a ranked choice ballot is received for a later election it is set aside. The envelope is only opened if necessary.

    It may be possible to vote after the results are known. If you had voted for 1. Andrew, 2. Bob 3. Carl for a potential Hemlock Party runoff, you might be able to submit a new ballot after you knew the runoff was Bob and Carl. Perhaps you favorite, Andrew had endorsed one of the other candidates. But that is an implementation detail.

    The reason for the 45 day mailout is in consideration of two way mailing time. It is possible that the outgoing time is longer than the return time. You probably can watch the election results real-time.

    It would be better if the US had in-person overseas voting, like France, Canada, Iran, and South Sudan.

  10. Ongoing failure or LAZY lawyers to note the TWO main speeches about the 14 Amdt and their connection to the 1866 Civil Rights Act

    esp 14 Amdt- Secs 1 and 5.

  11. @ JR

    I knew there were runoff elections in several states. I did mot know that some classes of voters in those states get to actually rank candidates. Is it true, by the numbers, ranked voting for those voters? Or do they just get one #2 choice?

    IMO, approval voting would be better for states with runoffs that have overseas voters. Then, you wouldn’t have to count overseas votes differently.

  12. Ogle doesn’t understand that the benefit of RCV to third party voters is not in winning, but by influencing the outcome in a way beneficial to them. With ranked choice voting, major party candidates are more likely to court #2 votes from third party voters.

  13. I have to wonder how many of those women who voted for Biden were single moms on welfare.

  14. More WARS [esp UN-declared WARS] and added USA debt with Donkey or Elephant Prezs since 19 Amdt [women vote] in 1920 ???

  15. Islam might be a degenerate moon rock worshippers cult full of guys who have sex with goats and camels, but they do get some things right. We could really learn some lessons from them on a few things, but put them in a Christian nationalist context.

    Here are some things I really liked that they do, which I saw when I was stationed in Saudi Arabia: first of all they keep women and foreigners in their place. I love that. Also they are not shy about executions and corporal punishment. Women are not even allowed to drive. Alcohol is outlawed, as it should be, and drug smugglers and dealers get their heads chopped off. Prostitutes, adultresses and homosexuals get stoned to death, to speak nothing of trannies. There’s no separation of religion and state. A man can divorce a woman easily, but a woman can almost never leave her husband. If she runs away she will be returned to him. A man can dictate when and how a wife performs her domestic and marital duties and discipline her as he sees fit. A man can have up to four wives. Abortion is not tolerated, and neither is pornography. Executions and whippings are public, as are mutilations, such as when thieves have their hands cut off.

    These are the kinds of sound policies we need to adopt in the USA, but in the name of Jesus. We could make the Trumps our royal family and rename the country Trumpy America.

  16. I have no connection to the name Gonzalez, and that link has nothing to do with me.

  17. LT –

    0-9 numbers and algebra — progress.

    rest — Pre-Stone Age primitive barbarian savage tyrants

    — all cooked brains — damaged due to desert sun — aka hotter than Hell.

    Earlier Christian stuff re Islam is nothing compared to what is coming.

  18. Everyone already assumes the person using the name “Andy” is actually Andy Gonzalez trying to conceal his identity with only his first name.

  19. @WZ,

    In the Georgia bill, the overseas voter will be given 2 ballots and 4 envelopes, two for each ballot.

    A mail ballot is placed in a ballot inside an envelope inside a carrier envelope. The carrier envelope is to ensure privacy in transit.

    The voter signs the inner envelope, and places the ballot inside. When the package arrives, the inner envelope is pulled and the signature verified. The inner envelope is placed in a ballot box.

    On election day, the ballot is pulled from the inner envelope and separated and counted.

    Since there are two sets of envelopes, the general election ballot and the runoff ballot may be voted be voted at different times. You might wait until after the general election, and determine if there will even be a runoff and who your choices will be.

    Imagine an election with 26 candidates, Adam Adams to Zoey Ziobro. Walter West and Zoey Ziobro advance to the runoff.

    Your ballot may have ranked both WW and ZZ; ranked one of the two; or ranked neither. It is likely your ranked ballot will be remade.

    If you ranked both, the lower rank will be your choice, even if they are 25 and 26. I suppose if you duplicated rankings it would be an overvote.

    If you ranked one that would be your choice.

    If you ranked neither it would be an undervote.

    It is not a true RCV ballot. It is more like conditional instructions in case of runoff.

  20. JR – GA RCV mess uniquely STUPID or what ???

    Much too difficult to have ONE ballot with number rankings ???

    as would be the case with Condorcet — RCV done right — with an added YES/NO vote as tiebreaker.

  21. How many added voters from other States [esp those who voted in Nov 2020 in their State) showed up in GA for the 2 runoff USA Senate elections ???

    IE —- How many voters moved around and voted in 3 or more elections [plus any related caucuses, primaries and conventions and runoff elecions) in the 6 plus years USA Senate election cycle ???

    ALL more reasons to ABOLISH the minority rule USA Senate.

  22. “Everyone already assumes the person using the name “Andy” is actually Andy Gonzalez trying to conceal his identity with only his first name.”

    Why is he trying to conceal his identity, and if his last name is not Gonzalez, what is it?

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