In 2020, future Gov. Spencer Cox won a four-way Republican primary for that office with just 38.15% of the vote. Former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. wasn’t far behind with 34.95%.
If the race had been held in seven of the nine states that require runoff elections for primaries that end in pluralities, voters would have chosen between those two in another election a few weeks later.
But … if it had been held in North Carolina or South Dakota, two other runoff states, no further election would have been necessary. South Dakota’s runoff law kicks in only if no candidate receives more than 35% of the votes. In North Carolina, the threshold is a scant 30%.
Democracy is quirky
American democracy can be quirky. Each state has its own rules. Each is, presumably, trying to satisfy the need to honor the will of the people, but that notion is more elusive than it sounds.
Runoff elections don’t attract all the same voters who cast ballots in the original primary. Election fatigue may keep some people on the sidelines the second time around. Others might be upset that their favorite is no longer in the race.
Government by the people often translates into government by the people who show up.
That makes solutions difficult.
A House bill
Utah state Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, is open to opinions on the subject.
“I think your real question there is, is 50% really the right threshold?” he told me the other day. “And, I don’t know.”
Teuscher said perhaps it should be 40%. “Maybe you have to win with a certain margin if you don’t have 50%, something like that. I’d be open to any of those options.”
For now, he’s sponsoring a bill that, if successful, would set the mark at 50% of the vote, plus one, in Utah. HB231 would require a runoff election 35 days after a primary in which no candidate met that requirement.
If passed, this would apply only to races for U.S. Senate, governor, attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor, state senator or state representative.
When he talked to me, Teuscher’s bill had just advanced from the House Government Operations Committee by a less-than-overwhelming 9-4 vote. It has since been slowly moving its way toward the floor of the House.
Teuscher is pushing an idea for which a lot of lawmakers see the need. But it’s an idea that also touches the periphery of a larger, more politically delicate issue.
Why so many candidates?
A decade ago, lawmakers sanctioned two ways to get onto a primary ballot in the state. One, the old-fashioned way, is by winning approval of at least 40% of delegates through the caucus/convention system — a system that, at the most, puts two people on the ballot.
The other way is by collecting petition signatures. Different amounts are required for different offices.
This two-tiered system came about because a petition drive was underway to replace the caucus/convention system entirely with open primaries. The petition option was a compromise to preserve the old system as an option.
A share of party stalwarts has resisted this new method ever since. Last year, gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman filed an unsuccessful legal challenge, claiming his victory at the Republican state convention should have qualified him for the general election.
In the meantime, however, more high-profile races have attracted multiple primary candidates, leading some to wonder if something should be done.
Getting there, however, is hard.
It’s complicated
Teuscher’s bill nearly stalled in committee when it was learned that a runoff for a statewide office would cost taxpayers $2.7 million. Also, some county clerks balk at the idea of organizing and running another big election only 35 days after a primary.
Mail-in voting may not be available in a runoff. Military members and overseas residents would be sent ballots asking them to rank their choices in the primary election. If a runoff is held, their highest ranked choice among the remaining two candidates would get their vote.
In other words, a runoff would be complicated. But so, too, would be an election in which some candidate advanced with only 21% of the vote.
That might have happened in the five-way third congressional district primary last year. It didn’t, but should Utah plan for a day when it might?
After all, even North Carolina, with its 30% threshold, has had to deal with that.