[potential words to include in an acronym-able title]
Democracy
Improvement
Evolution
Advanced
Election Methods
Act

[comments in brackets]

"Improvement of Democratic Elections Act (IDEA)"


3XX (definitions)
"Election Method" shall mean a specific mathematical and logical method of choosing a winner or winners based on votes.

"Approval Ballot" allows a voter to record a vote of yes or no for each choice. An Approval Ballot may be presented where "no" is unmarked and "yes" is marked.

"Ranked Ballot" allows a voter to express the relative rankings of each choice. A choice ranked 'First' is the most preferred choice for the voter; 'Second' is the next most preferred choice, and so on. A vote may not assign the same ranking to two or more choices. Any number of choices may be left unranked.

"Rated Ballot" allows a voter to express a rating, in the form of some number, for each choice.

"Yes/No Ballot" allows a voter to affirm or reject some proposition, being a ballot initiative, judge retention, etc. "Yes" and "No", or similar positive and negative expressions, shall be recorded by the ballot distinct from not-voting on the election or issue.

"Vote" shall mean the record of a Voter's expression about the choices on a ballot.

[This should go somewhere in Division 10, 12, 13 or 14]
NNNN.   Defining the procedures of Election Methods

	"Single Vote" is the traditional election method where voters cast a single vote. As of two years after the passage of this law, Single Vote shall no longer be an acceptable method of election. (Approval Voting is recommended as the simplest substitute.)

The following are acceptable Election Methods for all public elections. It is intended that Election Official in charge choose the best system based on the technology available and the understood merits of the various systems.
	
1.	"Approval Voting" is applied to votes from an Approval Ballot. For each choice the "yes" votes are tallied. The choice, or choices when there are more than one position available, with the most yes votes are the winners.

2.	"Yes/No Vote" is applied to votes from a "Yes/No Ballot. It is the traditional election method used for judge retention, ballot initiatives, [etc?]. Unless a super-majority is specified by some other act of constitution or law, if more "Yes" votes are counted than "No" votes then the issue is accepted.

3.	"Normalized Rating Election" is applied to votes from Rated Ballots. The ratings for each vote shall be proportionally adjusted so as to preserve the relative intents of the voter and so as to give all voters equal voting power (Not withstanding any other law which gives a voter a fractional vote). The adjusted ratings shall be summed and the choice or choices with the highest summary rating shall be the winners.

4.	"Instant Runoff Voting" is applied to votes from Ranked Ballots. IRV is for single seat elections. As long as there are two or more qualified choices, one vote shall be counted for the highest ranked qualified choice from each vote. If a vote has the unranked value recorded for the remaining qualified choices, no choices shall receive a count from that vote. The choice with the lowest count shall be disqualified and the count repeated. The winner shall be the choice with the greater count after counting when there are two qualified choices.

5.	"Virtual Round Robin Tournament", also known as "Condorcet's Method", is applied to votes from Ranked Ballots. If one choice is ranked more preferably than another choice by more votes than the reverse is true then the first choice is considered to have 'defeated' the second. After 'defeats' between all pairings of choices are counted then the choice or choices with the fewest defeats are the winners.

[5.1	Cycle Resolution Methods accessory to Condorcet's Method
	...]

6.	"Instant Runoff Normalized Ratings" is applied to votes from Rated Ballots. The ratings for each vote shall be proportionally adjusted so as to preserve the relative intents of the voter and so as to give all voters equal voting power (Not withstanding any other law which gives a voter a fractional vote). The adjusted ratings shall be summed and the choice or choices with the highest summary rating shall be the winners.

NNNN+1.	Procedures for coordinating Election Methods

1.	For "Instant Runoff Voting" (NNNN.4), all recorded votes shall be transmitted to the County Election Official. For elections which cannot be decided at the county level the County Election Official shall in turn transmit a compilation of all recorded votes to the Secretary of State or delegated election official for the State.

2.	For all other Election Methods precincts shall transmit summaries of votes to their County Election Official. For elections which cannot be decided at the county level the County Election Official shall in turn transmit a compiled county wide summary to the Secretary of State or delegated election official for the State.

[Does this need to be spelled out or can it be left implicitly to an implementation detail?]
[2.1	The summary form of Condoret's method is a table with as many rows and columns as there are choices. Each entry in the table represents the number of voices that prefer one choice over another.]

Delete section 15450. Pluralities will no longer exist.