01-HR1189 on Mar 22, 2001

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: To provide that a State may use a proportional voting system for multiseat congressional districts.

EXCERPTS OF BILL:

It is the sense of Congress that:
1. A State should award its electoral votes for President and Vice President to the candidates who receive a majority of the votes cast in the State for such offices.
2. An instant runoff voting (IRV) system is an effective and appropriate method for ensuring that one set of candidates will receive a majority of the votes cast in the State.

Under instant runoff voting, voters rank their favorite and subsequent choice candidates, and if a majority has not voted for one candidate, the candidate with least number of votes is eliminated and another round of counting occurs. In the next round and each subsequent round, ballots are counted for the highest remaining candidate ranked on each ballot, and rounds continue until a candidate has received a majority of the votes cast.

Each State should adopt an instant runoff voting system for the election of electors for President and Vice President.

LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to House Committee on Judiciary; never came to a vote.