By Barry Smith
Published August 21st 2006 in Jacksonville Daily News
RALEIGH — The days of going to the polls for primary runoffs in North Carolina could be numbered.
Beginning with municipal elections next year, and continuing with local elections in 2008, a handful of boards of elections will participate in an instant runoff pilot project.
A new law authorizes the State Board of Elections to select 10 municipal elections for the pilot project in 2007 and 10 counties in 2008.
“It’s a real big change,” said Johnnie McLean of the State Board of Elections.
Here is how the instant runoff would work.
In races where there are more than two candidates for a party’s nomination, such as a county commissioners or register of deed’s race, voters could mark their ballots for their first choice, second choice and third choice.
For the regular primary, only the first choice marks would be counted. If no candidate received the 40 percent threshold to win the first primary outright, then the instant runoff features would kick in.
The two top vote-getters would make it to the instant runoff, with all of their first-choice ballots still counting for them. For the voters who didn’t mark either of these two candidates as their first choice, elections officials would count their second-choice selections and, sometimes, third-choice preference toward the candidates’ instant runoff total.
The candidate with the highest total vote count would win the nomination.
Similar rules are in place for non-partisan elections. And another provision of the new law applies instant runoff procedures to specific statewide judicial races.
If lawmakers like how the pilot project turns out, they could apply the instant runoff system to all races, including statewide elections for U.S. senator, governor and Council of State, following the 2008 elections.
That could save counties across the state, which foot the bill for elections, between $5 million and $5.5 million, McLean said.
It would increase voter participation, since the number of people who turn out for a runoff election is usually significantly lower than the first primary turnout.
“It gives more integrity to the voting process,” said Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, who sponsored the legislation.
A number of elections offices are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the new way of conducting runoffs, which Luebke likes to call “same day runoffs.”
“I have no idea if we’re going to be in the mix or not,” said Rose Whitehurst, Onslow County director of elections.
She said she thinks the county might be interested in the new idea, but doesn’t want to be a guinea pig.
McLean acknowledges that the change would be a challenge.
“I would suspect that any candidate in that office would do a certain amount of education,” she said. In addition, elections board web pages would likely have instructions posted along with newspaper and other media reporting.
“If we could get voters as a whole to read the instructions printed on the ballot, that might be the secret to all of this,” McLean said.
County boards might also want to hire extra people during the initial changeover to explain the new technique, she said.
Tiffiney Miller, Craven County director of elections, said that the county might want to participate in the pilot program. However, it has only a limited number of races that would be eligible, she said.
“I think it’s a good concept,” she said.
Officials also acknowledge that current voting software doesn’t include ways to tabulate instant runoff second and third choices. However, they say that such software could be required from vendors in the future, should lawmakers decide to make the instant runoff system permanent and statewide.
“The software is going to come on line,” Luebke said.
Barry Smith is the Raleigh bureau reporter for Freedom Communications, Inc.
Beginning with municipal elections next year, and continuing with local elections in 2008, a handful of boards of elections will participate in an instant runoff pilot project.
A new law authorizes the State Board of Elections to select 10 municipal elections for the pilot project in 2007 and 10 counties in 2008.
“It’s a real big change,” said Johnnie McLean of the State Board of Elections.
Here is how the instant runoff would work.
In races where there are more than two candidates for a party’s nomination, such as a county commissioners or register of deed’s race, voters could mark their ballots for their first choice, second choice and third choice.
For the regular primary, only the first choice marks would be counted. If no candidate received the 40 percent threshold to win the first primary outright, then the instant runoff features would kick in.
The two top vote-getters would make it to the instant runoff, with all of their first-choice ballots still counting for them. For the voters who didn’t mark either of these two candidates as their first choice, elections officials would count their second-choice selections and, sometimes, third-choice preference toward the candidates’ instant runoff total.
The candidate with the highest total vote count would win the nomination.
Similar rules are in place for non-partisan elections. And another provision of the new law applies instant runoff procedures to specific statewide judicial races.
If lawmakers like how the pilot project turns out, they could apply the instant runoff system to all races, including statewide elections for U.S. senator, governor and Council of State, following the 2008 elections.
That could save counties across the state, which foot the bill for elections, between $5 million and $5.5 million, McLean said.
It would increase voter participation, since the number of people who turn out for a runoff election is usually significantly lower than the first primary turnout.
“It gives more integrity to the voting process,” said Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, who sponsored the legislation.
A number of elections offices are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the new way of conducting runoffs, which Luebke likes to call “same day runoffs.”
“I have no idea if we’re going to be in the mix or not,” said Rose Whitehurst, Onslow County director of elections.
She said she thinks the county might be interested in the new idea, but doesn’t want to be a guinea pig.
McLean acknowledges that the change would be a challenge.
“I would suspect that any candidate in that office would do a certain amount of education,” she said. In addition, elections board web pages would likely have instructions posted along with newspaper and other media reporting.
“If we could get voters as a whole to read the instructions printed on the ballot, that might be the secret to all of this,” McLean said.
County boards might also want to hire extra people during the initial changeover to explain the new technique, she said.
Tiffiney Miller, Craven County director of elections, said that the county might want to participate in the pilot program. However, it has only a limited number of races that would be eligible, she said.
“I think it’s a good concept,” she said.
Officials also acknowledge that current voting software doesn’t include ways to tabulate instant runoff second and third choices. However, they say that such software could be required from vendors in the future, should lawmakers decide to make the instant runoff system permanent and statewide.
“The software is going to come on line,” Luebke said.
Barry Smith is the Raleigh bureau reporter for Freedom Communications, Inc.
