Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wants the General Assembly to end or reform general election runoffs, suggesting a lower threshold for candidates to win outright and instant runoff using ranked-choice voting that wouldn’t require voters to return to the polls.
“Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a General Election Runoff,” Raffensperger said in a Wednesday press release. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms.”
The release came the week after The New York Times reported Raffensperger’s call for reforms. He proposed that legislators should require large counties to open more early-voting locations, reducing lines. They could lower the winning threshold to avoid a runoff from 50 percent to 45 percent. He also proposed a ranked-choice instant runoff system that wouldn’t require voters to return to the polls.
“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” he said in his Wednesday release. “It’s even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period.”
A few Republicans seem open to changing strategy and embracing early and absentee voting. But Raffensperger is disliked by many Georgia conservatives.
“I have consulted with multiple leading Republicans in the Georgia state senate, and they have indicated to me that there is little-to-no support for Raffensperger’s proposals,” Georgia GOP Second Vice-Chairman Brant Frost told The Georgia Star News.
“I think that there will be a push to end no-excuse absentee voting and to cut early voting to 14 days,” he said.
Former Georgia State Representative Jeff Jones called for more limited early voting and ending no-excuse absentee voting. He also called for eliminating drop boxes.
“An unscrupulous poll manager can simply look the other way while ballots are stuffed in the drop boxes,” he said.
Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition Executive Director Mack Parnell said, “For ranked choice in general, it has truly been a disaster for conservative values whenever it has been tried.”
He added, “I do understand the sentiment of being exhausted by elections, but I think it is actually more of a reflection of Georgia being so critical at a national level. Georgia has never been much of a target before now, and we Georgians are not used to the additional ads, texts, calls, knocks, and emails that come with the territory of being a battleground state. The massive amount of political spending in the last two cycles broke every record, and I believe the whole nation will have ‘Georgia on their mind.'”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Brad Raffensperger” by Brad Raffensperger. Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
