On August 25, South Carolina Republicans will vote in a delayed runoff to choose their nominee for a U.S. Senate seat – which became vacant after Sen. Lindsey Graham passed away in July. This marks the fourth time in 11 weeks that South Carolina Republicans are voting in primary elections; two of those are costly, unnecessary runoff elections.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) – also known as “instant runoff voting” – is a better, faster, cheaper alternative that would ensure nominees have majority support, without the high cost or low turnout of runoffs. 

Learn more below, including my take as a South Carolina native. 

Why are South Carolina Republicans voting four times this summer?

When no candidate secures a majority of the vote in South Carolina primaries, the state holds a delayed runoff between the top two candidates. 

In South Carolina’s initial primary on June 9, voters selected nominees for governor, Congress, and other offices. Sen. Lindsey Graham won his primary for a fifth term with 57% of the vote. However, other major races – including the Republican primary for governor – did not have majority winners, so the state held runoffs on June 23.

After Sen. Graham passed away in July, South Carolina scheduled a special primary for August 11 to choose a new Republican nominee. None of the 10 candidates secured a majority of the vote, triggering a runoff on August 25.

How much do these runoffs cost South Carolina taxpayers?

South Carolina’s special Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate – like all runoffs – comes with a significant cost to taxpayers. Prior to Graham’s death, state election officials estimated the taxpayer cost of a statewide special primary – including both the primary and the runoff – at up to $6 million. That could put the cost of the runoff as high as $3 million. 

That cost doesn’t account for the additional millions of dollars worth of campaign ads that voters will be subjected to. 

Runoffs fail to deliver majority rule

Runoff elections are supposed to make government more representative by electing candidates with majority support. But in practice, runoffs usually shrink the electorate and come with a significant price tag for taxpayers.

In 2024, primary runoffs had an average 63% turnout drop from the initial election, and 81% of winners earned fewer votes in the runoff than in the initial election. In South Carolina’s Republican primary for governor this summer, roughly 33% fewer voters turned out for the runoff than the initial primary.

How does ranked choice voting help?

Ranked choice voting is a better, faster, cheaper alternative to runoff elections. RCV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, with an “instant runoff” determining a majority winner if no candidate wins a majority of voters’ first choices.

This means winners are determined on Election Day, when participation is highest and voters can choose from the full range of candidates. With RCV, South Carolina voters wouldn’t need to cast a second ballot for the same offices, and taxpayers wouldn’t have to cover the cost of a second election. 

South Carolina – along with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi – already uses RCV to help military and overseas voters participate in runoffs. Because of the challenges of mailing runoff ballots overseas so shortly after the primary election, these voters get to rank their choices during the primary. If a runoff election occurs, their vote counts for whichever finalist candidate they ranked highest. All voters in South Carolina should be given the same convenience.

In 2024, South Carolina’s largest newspaper – The Post & Courier – pointed to RCV as an ideal solution to costly, low-turnout runoffs:

There’s a simple and effective way to ensure that more voters decide who wins runoffs — a way that South Carolinians in the military or living overseas already use. It’s alternatively called instant runoff or ranked choice voting…

To support ranked choice voting in South Carolina, visit Better Ballot SC today!

My take

I was born and raised in South Carolina, and formerly worked as a congressional staffer serving the 1st District. Much of my family – including my parents, siblings, niece, and nephew – still live in the Lowcountry.

If there’s one thing everyone in my family agrees on when it comes to politics, it’s that campaigns have become nauseatingly toxic. Every election cycle, my family spends the months leading up to the primaries barraged by attack ads from dozens of candidates for dozens of offices. When those primaries go to runoffs, that barrage begins again – and continues until November. 

On top of that, my family members have to make time to go to the polls multiple times. My mother only made it to the polls with minutes to spare in the special Republican primary on August 11. That was the third time she’s had to vote in the last 11 weeks, and she’ll need to vote again on August 25 – before voting yet again in November.

When I told my mother about RCV – how it would spare her from unnecessary weeks of negative campaigning, and let her vote just once in the primaries – her only response was, “that just makes too much sense.”

No one could’ve predicted the sudden passing of longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham. But replacing him as a nominee could have been much easier with RCV, especially since South Carolina already allows military voters serving abroad to use it. Expanding that convenience to every South Carolinian would spare my mother – and all other voters – time and energy every election cycle.