Weekly Opinion/Editorial
RANKED VOTING!
by Steve Fair
In last week’s Oklahoma primary
election 891,654 voters showed up- 850,781 voted in the Party primaries. 452,194 voted Republican, 395,038 voted Democrat
(Independents can vote in Democrat primary) and 3,549 voted Libertarian. The turnout was over twice what it is for a
normal mid-term primary and exceeded the 2016 presidential primary. The reason was SQ #788, the marijuana bill,
which passed 57%-43%. Because most of
the Republican statewide races had multiple candidates, only one race of the
eight races was decided on Tuesday night.
Seven(7) statewide races will be on the August 28th runoff
ballot, so expect your mailbox to stay full of political push cards for the
next two months. Three observations:
First, the top two GOP statewide
races feature OKC vs. Tulsa candidates.
With former OKC Mayor Mick Cornett and Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt squaring
off in runoff to be the GOP nominee for governor and former OKGOP Chairman Matt
Pinnell(Tulsa) and Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy for Lt. governor(OKC),
the lines are drawn between the two metro areas. The
rivalry between the two largest cities in the state has always been intense in
politics. There are 170,000 registered Republicans
in Tulsa county (51% of total voters).
There are 173,000 Rs in Oklahoma county (45%). For years, the Tulsa area dominated GOP
statewide primaries, but with the changing of Party affiliation, that advantage
has been diminished. These two races
will be a clear get out the vote effort.
The candidate who does the best job of getting their supporters to the
polls to vote will win.
Second, with so many runoffs,
Oklahoma should consider ranked/ preferential voting or instant-runoff voting
in races that have more than two candidates.
Instead of voting only for a single candidate, voters would rank the
candidates in order of preference. The ballots
would be initially counted for each voter’s top choice, losing candidates would
be eliminated, and ballots for losing candidates redistributed until one
candidate is the top remaining choice of a majority of the voters. When the
field is reduced to two, an "instant runoff" allows a comparison of
the top two candidates head-to-head. An ‘instant
run-off’ election system would save taxpayers money by eliminating the need for
a primary runoff. Maine and Tennessee are both using versions of
preferential voting. Australia uses it in all their elections where there are
more than two candidates.
Third, a large number of
first time, one issue voters cast their ballot last Tuesday. It’s great to see new people becoming engaged
in their government, but a large number of the 891k plus voters were there to
vote on #788 and were clueless about the races.
They just marked a name they were familiar with. That will not be case
on August 28th. The primary
runoff will have much lower turnout and will have a more informed electorate.
This will
be the first Republican statewide runoff since 2002, which featured Jeff Cloud
and Dana Murphy in a fight for the Republican nomination for Corporation
Commission. Only 87,319 people voted in
that race, which was won by Cloud. With
seven Republican races on the ballot, turnout will be good, but it won’t be
half of what it was last Tuesday.
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