Safeguard American Votes and Elections Act (SAVE Act)

Policy Status

  • Type: Model Policy
  • Status: Final
  • Date Introduced: July 28, 2023
  • Date Finalized: August 28, 2023

Issues

  • Federalism

    • Task Forces

  • Federalism and International Relations

    • Tags

  • AM 2023
  • Elections as the Founding Fathers Intended

    • Summary

    In American federalism, states are the fundamental level of government. This includes primacy over state and local elections, and over many aspects of federal elections. Special interests are pushing a novel and complicated election process called ranked-choice voting (RCV; and also related systems like approval voting and STAR voting). Often they try to enact these in local jurisdictions, creating a conflict between local and state election processes. They have also introduced federal legislation to force RCV on the states. This legislation would prohibit RCV and similar systems in state or local elections.
    Draft

    Safeguard American Votes and Elections Act (SAVE Act)

    (1) In all elections, including primary elections, for any local, state, or federal public office, the following shall be prohibited:

    a. Voting systems that permit a voter to vote for more than one candidate for the same office;

    b. Voting systems that permit a voter to rank multiple candidates for the same office; and

    c. Voting systems that reallocate a voter’s vote for one candidate to another candidate for the same office.

    (2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a locality from holding at-large elections or multi-member district elections, so long as voters have one vote per position and no votes are transferred between candidates.

    (3) Any existing or future ordinance by any political subdivision of this state which is in conflict with this section is void.

    (4) Any election for any public office in this state conducted under a voting system prohibited by section 1 is void, and no candidate shall be elected under such a system.