Sponsors (4)
The bill standardizes Federal ballots to a single‑choice method—reducing complexity and state implementation costs—but removes ranked‑choice options for voters, risks administrative disruption in jurisdictions that adopted RCV, and may provoke costly legal challenges.
Voters nationwide (especially in jurisdictions that use plurality voting) will have a uniform single-choice format for Federal ballots, which simplifies tabulation and reduces voter confusion in those places.
State election offices avoid the costs and complexity of implementing ranked‑choice procedures for Federal contests (training, new tabulation software, and public education), saving state administrative resources and budgets.
The Attorney General gains explicit enforcement authority to ensure compliance with a federal prohibition on ranked‑choice voting for Federal offices, clarifying federal oversight and legal remedies.
Voters in States that adopted ranked‑choice voting will lose the ability to cast ranked ballots for Federal offices beginning in 2026, reducing voter choice and the ability to express preferences beyond a single pick.
State and local election administrators (and therefore voters) will face administrative disruption — including changing procedures, ballot redesigns, and split‑ballot mismatches — when jurisdictions that implemented RCV must revert, increasing operational burdens and potential voter confusion.
Taxpayers and state governments may incur increased legal costs and resource drains from litigation if States that implemented ranked‑choice voting challenge the federal prohibition.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bans the use of ranked‑choice voting in all Federal elections beginning with elections held in 2026 by amending the Help America Vote Act and enabling DOJ enforcement.
Introduced April 28, 2025 by Abraham J. Hamadeh · Last progress April 28, 2025
Prohibits the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in all Federal elections beginning with elections held in 2026 by adding a new prohibition to the Help America Vote Act. It also renumbers adjacent HAVA provisions and updates the Attorney General enforcement cross-reference to include the new prohibition. States and local election officials that currently use or planned to use RCV for federal contests would have to stop using it for those contests, and jurisdictions would face administrative changes and potential legal challenges. The law does not appropriate money to help pay for changes and does not restrict use of RCV in non‑federal elections unless other law applies.