HR 3040119th CongressIn Committee

Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act

Introduced: Apr 28, 2025

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act would ban the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in elections for federal office. It amends Title III of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), adding a new Section 305 that prohibits any state from conducting a federal election using a system in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. The changes include conforming and clerical adjustments to existing law, and the effective date specifies that the prohibition applies to elections held in 2026 or later. In short, no state may use RCV for federal elections beginning with the 2026 cycle and beyond.

Key Points

1Prohibition of RCV in federal elections: A state may not carry out any federal election using a ranked-choice voting system where voters rank candidates by preference.
2Legislative housekeeping: The bill redesignates and adjusts related sections in HAVA (including moving sections and updating cross-references) to accommodate the new prohibition.
3Effective date: The prohibitions and amendments apply to elections held in 2026 and subsequent years.
4Enforcing amendments: The bill amends the enforcement provisions to reference the new Section 305, ensuring it is treated as part of the same governance framework as existing provisions.
5Naming and citation: The act is titled the Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act, and it sits within the broader HAVA framework as amended by the COCOA Act of 2024.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected- State election officials and election administrators who run federal elections; they would need to ensure that federal races are not conducted using ranked-choice systems and would need to adjust procedures, voting equipment, and tabulation processes accordingly.Secondary group/area affected- Voters in states that would otherwise implement or have implemented RCV for federal races, as well as election-system vendors and consultants who support federal election administration; these stakeholders would shift away from RCV implementations for federal contests.Additional impacts- Potential political and legal debates around ballot design, election method options, and transitional planning as states switch away from RCV for federal elections.- Possible cost implications related to changing voting systems, training, and equipment for federal elections starting in 2026.- Interaction with broader election-law developments, including how this aligns with or diverges from other ongoing reforms and court challenges related to vote counting and ballot ranking.

Generated by gpt-5-nano on Nov 18, 2025