Ranked choice voting provision

SF 1912 would allow Minnesota cities and counties to adopt ranked choice voting for local elections, such as mayoral or city council races. The bill creates new procedures in Minnesota Statutes (Chapter 204E) for how ranked choice voting must be implemented, including rules for counting ballots (where votes transfer to the next-ranked candidate if a voter's top choice is eliminated) and defining terms like "active candidate" or "batch elimination." It specifically applies only to local elections, not state or federal races, and requires jurisdictions to follow these standardized procedures if they choose to implement the system. The bill does not require any jurisdiction to adopt ranked choice voting, only authorizes it for local option.