Section 95 of chapter 54 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after the fifth paragraph the following new paragraph:-

Federal write-in absentee ballots from absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters as defined in said section 107 of said Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act for the primary election for the office of president of the United States shall be designed by the state secretary to permit the voter to rank the candidates in order of choice. The voter shall not be required to indicate his or her preference for more than one candidate on the ballot and may not be limited in the number of rankings. A vote on a ranked choice ballot shall be counted as one vote for the highest ranked candidate who has not withdrawn from the election. Instructions shall be sent with the ranked choice ballot to the voter explaining how to rank candidates in order of choice and how the ballot will be tabulated.