BAY MINETTE -- Turnout in Tuesday's County Commission runoff was so low at the Bay Minette Intermediate School precinct that the number of poll workers doubled voters.

Of the 926 registered voters, two cast ballots. That is not a misprint. That is not a percentage. Two individuals showed up to decide the Republican nomination for a County Commission seat between Wayne Gruenloh and William "Will" McDaniel.

They both picked McDaniel.

"Good gracious alive," Baldwin County Probate Judge Adrian Johns said upon learning the results from that precinct.

The turnout percentage at that polling place works out to 0.22 percent, which elections officials said could well be a record.

Dollie Mims, who was a poll worker Tuesday, said she and her fellow poll workers did a lot waiting. She said both voters cast their ballots in the morning. Then the poll workers bided their time until the polls closed at 7 p.m.

"We did things. I read books and what have you," said Mims, who has been a poll worker for four elections. "I kind of was expecting more than two."

Even the poll inspector and the four poll workers failed to vote. Mims had a simple explanation: "I'm not a Republican."

Even though the Democrats had no runoffs and will not field a candidate against the GOP nominee, who ended up being Gruenloh, Mims said she did not want to cross party lines. That may have been a factor for other voters in that Bay Minette precinct, which has a large number of black voters and tends to support Democrats in general elections.

Turnout elsewhere was not a whole lot heavier, though. Countywide, slightly more than 5 percent of Baldwin's 93,223 registered voters cast ballots, a sharp drop-off from the 16.6 percent who voted in the first round on June 1.

The highest turnout came at the Hamilton Church precinct in Gateswood, where nearly 16 percent of the 207 registered voters cast ballots. Fort Morgan followed closely with 14.2 percent. But only five other precincts -- out of a total of 48 -- had double-digit percentages.

"It's kind of what most of us were anticipating," Johns said. "It's a shame that more people don't participate."

With no statewide races on Tuesday's ballot, county taxpayers will have to pick up the entire tab for the runoff, which cost about $75,000. That comes out to $15.46 for every person who voted.

"I hate that we spend the county's money" for such a low turnout, said Gruenloh, a Marlow resident who has an accounting firm in Robertsdale.

Gruenloh mused that it would be nice if the county could figure out a way to forego that cost. According to some national reform advocates, there is an option to do just that. It's called instant-runoff voting, and activists said it ensures broader participation at a lower cost.

Here's how it works: Voters rank their choices in each race. In a four-person field, for instance, the voter picks his first choice, second choice and then third and fourth choices. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of those first choices, the last-place candidate is removed. The second-choice votes of that candidate's supporters then get counted.

One by one, candidates are eliminated until one has enough votes to win an outright majority.

Rob Richie, executive director of the Center for Voting and Democracy, said instant-runoff voting offers greater efficiency and participation. The think tank studied 91 campaigns for the U.S. House and Senate that went to a runoff since 1994. All but two resulted in a lighter turnout for the second round, and Richie said the average drop-off was about a third.

Having only one round of voting ensures a greater popular mandate for the candidate. In addition, he said, it avoids the negativity that head-to-head match-ups often generate. If candidates see an advantage of becoming voters' second choice, he said, they will be much more reluctant to attack their opponents.

"One of the things that a runoff does is encourage more positive campaigns," he said. "I think we'd ultimately probably get better cam paigns in the first round."

Although not widely used in the United States, Richie said many foreign countries have used the system for years. And the idea is gaining strength in America as well, he added.

Cambridge, Mass., uses a variation of the system in local elections, and Louisiana uses a ranking method for soldiers stationed abroad. Several colleges have adopted instant-runoff voting for student elections in recent years, Richie said.

Richie said bills dealing with the issue were introduced in about two dozen states this year.

Alabama even used a variation of instant-runoff voting for some statewide races in the 1920s, according to Richie.

Gruenloh said he had not heard of instant-runoff voting but pronounced himself intrigued by the idea.

"That's worth looking into. It sounds like it could save the county money," he said.

Also unaware of the system, County Commission Chairman Frank Burt said he, too, would be interested in learning more.

"It sounds like a way to save a dollar," he said. "We could have paved two miles of road for what we spent on the election."

One potential complication is that Baldwin's voting machines would have to be reprogrammed. But Richie said governments usually recoup those costs in one election cycle by foregoing separate runoffs.

Richie said San Francisco, for instance, recently paid $1.6 million to reprogram its voting machines in preparation for city council races that will use in stant-runoff voting for the first time in November.

In past years, he said, it cost the city about $3 million to hold a separate December runoff for races that did not produce outright winners.

Julie Wagnon, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said the political parties likely would have to initiate any switch to instant-runoff voting since they run primaries; general election winners are not required to receive more than 50 percent of the vote.

Roger Baschab, chairman of the Baldwin County Republican Party, said instant-runoff voting would shorten the election season and ease pressure on candidates to raise additional campaign funds. He said it also might reduce the influence of special interests that can generate sway in light-turnout elections.

"I am big on the people having a say," he said.