On Tuesday, as most Americans brined turkeys or hit the road to visit family for Thanksgiving, Charleston, SC and Miami Beach, FL voters returned to the polls for runoff elections. In both cities, ranked choice voting would offer a cheaper, better, faster alternative to runoffs – delivering a consensus winner in a single election where turnout is highest and all candidates are on the ballot. 

In South Carolina’s largest city of Charleston, just 27,291 voters cast a ballot in the mayoral runoff – a drop of about 11% from the 30,805 who voted in the November 7 general election. Notably, mayor-elect William Cogswell won the razor-thin runoff by just 569 votes – a margin several times smaller than the 3,514-vote dropoff. 

The turnout decline was even worse in Charleston’s City Council District 9 contest, with 33% fewer voters casting a ballot in the runoff than in the general election. 

This follows a trend of steep turnout declines for Charleston runoffs. In the 2019 Charleston mayoral election, turnout fell by 22% from the general election to the runoff, after “only” dropping 6% in 2015. In 2011, without a competitive mayoral race to drive voters to the polls, one council contest went to a runoff and saw a roughly 41% drop in turnout! 

It’s not just Charleston’s city elections; the median decline in congressional primary runoffs nationwide is 40%.

On the same day, Miami Beach held a runoff election to choose its new mayor. In the two weeks between the general election and the runoff, the Miami Herald justifiably groaned, “Yes, it’s still election season.” 

In the runoff, Miami Beach Commissioner Steve Meiner came out on top with 54%. But the use of runoffs meant that fewer Miami Beach voters had an impact. Just like in Charleston, turnout declined dramatically – by 26%, from 13,604 in the general election to 10,041 in the runoff. 

In both cities, runoffs meant that fewer voters had their voices heard in the decisive election. With ranked choice voting (also known as “instant runoff voting”), Charleston and Miami Beach could ensure winning candidates have majority support without the dropoff in turnout and significant taxpayer expense inherent in traditional runoffs. As Charleston’s leading newspaper writes: 

If the Legislature adopted ranked-choice voting, we wouldn’t have to go out to the polling places a second time, we wouldn’t have to pay to run a second election, and we wouldn’t have to endure the often-nasty runoff campaigns.

– Post & Courier Editorial Staff, June 2022