Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday called on lawmakers to end the state’s general election runoff system, just one week after the Peach State held a U.S. Senate runoff, its second in less than two years.
“Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a General Election Runoff,” the Republican secretary of state said in a prepared statement. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms.”
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock bested Republican Herschel Walker in last week’s runoff, after both candidates failed to garner 50 percent of the vote on Election Day. In 2020, the state’s two Senate races were decided by runoffs, as well. Those races, held in January 2021, ultimately gave Democrats control of the Senate with wins by Warnock and Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff.
Georgia and Louisiana are outliers among the states when it comes to runoff elections — both require a candidate to receive a majority of votes to stave off a runoff. Other states — aside from Maine and Alaska, which use ranked-choice voting — allow candidates who win with a plurality of the vote.
A new law passed by the Peach State last year cut the runoff period from nine weeks to four. Early voting for the December 6 runoff this year began as early as November 26 in some parts of Georgia.
“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” Raffensperger said. “It’s even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period.”
A spokesperson for Raffensperger’s office told NBC News that election workers are “burned out” after a long election season and suggested runoff elections are disliked by candidates, voters, campaigns and county workers.
Raffensperger’s office told NBC News he will propose three options to reform or replace the runoff system: the state could implement a ranked-choice instant-runoff system that would not require voters to return to the polls after the general election, it could shift from requiring candidates to win an outright majority to needing to win only a plurality of the vote, or it could eliminate third-party candidate ballot access.