Today is Tax Day, and we want to know that our hard-earned money is going toward something worthy. Our government collects taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare, education and social services, public safety, veteran support programs, and transportation.

Of course, not all uses of taxpayer dollars are so noble: enter runoff elections. Jurisdictions all across the country hold runoff elections when no candidate wins a majority of the vote. Voters have to return to the polls a second time, and election administrators have to set up and manage a second Election Day. We pay for two elections instead of one, and in return, get dramatically lower voter turnout. As FairVote has found, the median turnout decline in the second round of federal primary runoffs is a whopping 40 percent – that means four out of every 10 voters simply don’t return for the runoff. 

Thankfully, there is a faster, better – and maybe most importantly on Tax Day, cheaper – alternative to runoffs: Ranked choice voting (RCV). 

It’s worth digging into a few examples of just how much Uncle Sam is spending on runoffs: 

• Georgia: Its 2020 U.S. Senate runoffs cost $75 million. That’s not counting the $500 million spent on campaign ads for the two races whose outcome determined control of the Senate. With the tremendously high stakes and constant bombardment of campaign ads, turnout only fell by 10 percent (by far the lowest turnout dropoff since we started tracking in 1992). 
• New York City: Its 2013 Public Advocate Democratic primary runoff cost the city $13 million – more than the entire budget of the office for the entire four-year term. Turnout was 6 percent. It’s no surprise that The Big Apple voted in 2019 to adopt ranked choice voting. 
• Texas and Louisiana: FairVote and Third Way’s research found that runoffs cost The Lone Star State a median of $7 per voter, meaning statewide Texas runoffs in 2018 and 2020 likely cost the state as much as $6 million and $11 million statewide. Next door, Louisiana’s statewide runoffs cost the state $5 million. As is usually the case with runoffs, taxpayers in these states have paid more to get less – with candidates in critical races winning “majority-rule” runoffs with fewer votes than they received in the general election.

Ranked choice voting offers an “instant runoff” – preserving majority rule at a lower cost, and in the election where turnout is naturally highest. Because voters rank candidates by preference, they only need to go to the polls once, and pay for one Election Day. If their favorite candidate is eliminated, their vote counts for their highest-ranked candidate who has a chance in the final vote-counting round (sound familiar?). 

Municipalities can save taxpayer dollars by consolidating runoffs (or two-round elections) into a single RCV election. In 2021, Utah County, Utah did just that by adopting RCV and consolidating their two-round local elections into a single contest. The county saved $140,000 – money that could be used to fund schools, to maintain roads and improve public transportation, or even to be returned to taxpayers. It’s no surprise that the majority of the 63 U.S. cities, counties, and states using RCV have used it to replace costly runoffs or two-round contests. 

RCV also improves access for those who may not be able to go back to the polls – which explains why six Southern states including Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina allow their military and overseas voters to complete an RCV ballot in contests that might go to a runoff. If a runoff does occur, these voters’ votes are simply counted for their highest-ranked candidate who made the runoff – instead of having to receive and send a second ballot from overseas.