By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 15, 2019 | Elections come regularly. May we suggest: is there a better way to hold elections?
The November city elections in Gwinnett may suggest another way to hold elections.
All too often, when more than two candidates vie for a position, one of them does not get a majority (50 percent plus one) of the ballots…..and the result is a runoff.
Runoffs are costly. Runoffs often do not see many voters return to the polls. One guy or gal may have led the first ballot casting, but that in no way insures that they will win in a runoff. For it all boils down as to which candidate gets the most voters to return to the polls the second time.
In many races, there is little difference in the quality or the politics of the candidates. Which ever won would be good for the government.
So why bother to have runoffs? It’s because rules required a “majority” of the voters who come to the polls to elect in most situations.
Yet how many times has the first voting seen, as an example 1,000 voters turn out in a first city race…..and the runoff find only 300 voters return to the polls? Let’s say that each candidate got 450 votes the first time (and a third candidate got 100), so a runoff is required.
But the second time, the winner might get 200 votes and the loser 100, and be declared the winner. But in reality, the winner got only 20 percent of the number of people who first voted, not 50 percent of 1,000 voters who voted the first time. In reality, the candidate won with a minority of all voters that year. Is this good government?
OK, let’s turn to Loganville. For Council in 2019, the results shows that of the total of 751 votes:
- Bill Duvall, 465 votes (62%);
- Jay Boland, 419 votes (56%);
- Linda A. Dodd, 367 (49%) votes;
- Femi Oduwold, 344 (46%) votes; and
- Misty Cox, 287 (38%) votes.
We had also reported the 2017 results for Mayor, where Rey Martinez won. However with Loganville having four year terms, there was no election for mayor this year.
Yet Loganville didn’t have to resort to an untimely and costly runoff……to get the hallowed “majority,” because of their method of bringing to office the top three in the race. So if you set up the election this way, you can override having to have a runoff.
Perhaps Loganville points to a better way. Maybe the other Gwinnett cities should consider changing their requirements and let the candidates who get the most votes wins the first time around, and avoid a costly and inefficient runoff.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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