Turnout fell 74% or more in North Carolina runoffs. Ranked choice voting would help.

Yesterday, North Carolina held delayed primary runoffs – often called a “second primary” in the Tar Heel State – to select the Republican nominees for lieutenant governor, state auditor, and the 13th Congressional District. In all three races, turnout dropped by at least 74% from the initial primary in March.

A meager 14% of first-round voters in the lieutenant governor primary participated in the runoff! In other words, about 9 in 10 voters simply didn’t have their voices heard in the contest that decided this nominee for an important statewide office. 

The purpose of runoff elections is to ensure winners are supported by a majority of voters, but all three nominees received far fewer votes in the runoff than they did in the first round.

If North Carolina used ranked choice voting (RCV) instead of runoffs, it could have identified majority winners ten weeks ago when hundreds of thousands more voters weighed in, at a fraction of the cost to taxpayers.

Voter turnout decline in North Carolina’s Republican primary runoffs

Race	% of First-Round Voters Who Voted in Runoff	Ultimate Winner	Votes Received by Ultimate Winner in First Round	Votes Received by Ultimate Winner in Runoff
Lieutenant Governor	14%	Hal Weatherman	188,398	96,461
State Auditor	15%	Dave Boliek	181,222	66,895
13th Congressional District	26%	Brad Knott	15,664	19,581

All three races represent good opportunities for Republicans to take back offices recently lost to Democrats or maintain a newly open seat. As a result, the GOP primary for each office saw a large field of candidates throw their hats into the ring. Six candidates ran for the Republican nomination for State Auditor, while a whopping 14 candidates ran in the GOP primary for the newly redrawn 13th Congressional District. 

Polling suggests that North Carolina’s gubernatorial race could be exceptionally tight, and potentially result in another four years where different parties hold the offices of governor and lieutenant governor. Given the lieutenant governor’s power to direct debate in the State Senate and serve as acting governor if the governor is outside the state, a potential partisan split makes this election particularly consequential. 

With each of these seats crucial to the balance of power in both North Carolina and the tightly divided U.S. House, it’s unfortunate that the Republican nominees were selected by such a tiny fraction of the electorate. Research shows that plurality primary winners tend to perform worse in general elections than candidates who win their primaries with a majority.

Broadly speaking, delayed runoff elections are expensive and experience a near-universal turnout decline. There’s a faster, cheaper, better way to pick winners with majority support: ranked choice voting. With RCV, voters rank the candidates in order of preference, and an instant runoff is triggered when necessary. If a voter’s favorite candidate isn’t viable, their vote can count for a backup choice. Jurisdictions like New York City, Minneapolis, and a dozen Utah cities including have adopted RCV to avoid two-round elections. 

Six southern states right next door to North Carolina already use RCV for military and overseas voters to participate in runoffs. These voters receive a ranked ballot, and if a race proceeds to a runoff, their ballot counts for whichever runoff candidate they ranked highest. Because of RCV, these voters don’t need to worry about delivery delays preventing them from having their voice heard in the runoff. 

North Carolinians deserve the same convenience of only having to vote once per contest. To support ranked choice voting in the Tar Heel State, visit Better Ballot NC today!

Image by Abhiram Juvvadi under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.