Runoff election

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A runoff election is a second election held to determine a winner when no candidate in the first election met the required threshold for victory. Runoff elections can be held for both primary elections and general elections.

General election runoffs

Three states—Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana—require runoff elections in a general election when no candidate receives a majority of the vote. In every other state, a candidate can win a general election with a plurality of the vote.

Georgia

See also: Electoral systems in Georgia

In Georgia, runoff elections are required for all congressional, state executive, and state legislative elections in which a candidate does not receive a majority in the general election. The top two finishers in the general election advance to the runoff. Unless otherwise postponed by a court order, the runoff is held on the 28th after the preceding general election. Georgia's legislature passed a law implementing this system in the 1960s.

Mississippi

See also: Electoral systems in Mississippi

See also: Mississippi Ballot Measure 2, Remove Electoral Vote Requirement and Establish Runoffs for Gubernatorial and State Office Elections Amendment (2020)

As the result of a ballot measure approved by voters in 2020, beginning in November 2023, runoff elections are required for all elections for statewide office in which a candidate does not receive a majority in the general election. The top two finishers in the general election advance to the runoff.

Louisiana

See also: Electoral systems in Louisiana

See also: Louisiana majority-vote system

In Louisiana, all candidates running for a local, state, or federal office appear on the same ballot in either October (in odd-numbered years) or November (in even-numbered years), regardless of their partisan affiliations. If a candidate wins a simple majority of all votes cast for the office, he or she wins the election outright. If no candidate meets that threshold, the top two finishers, regardless of their partisan affiliations, advance to a second election in December. In that election, the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes wins. The state implemented the system in 1975.

Note: HB17, signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry (R) on January 22, 2024, established closed partisan primaries and primary runoffs for Congress, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and the Louisiana Supreme Court beginning in 2026.

Primary election runoffs

Nine states conduct runoff elections as part of their party nomination process. These runoffs occur when no candidate reaches the required threshold for victory. In most states, this is a majority (as opposed to a plurality) of the vote. In North Carolina, however, the threshold for victory in the primary election is 30 percent of the vote plus one. In South Dakota, a runoff is triggered if no candidate wins more than 35% of the vote in a primary with three or more candidates. The following are the ten states that use primary runoff elections:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Georgia
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• South Dakota - Only for congressional and gubernatorial elections
• Texas

Primary election runoffs trace their roots to the turn of the 20th century in the South. Prior to enacting the primary and runoff system, Democrats nominated candidates through conventions. The Democratic Party used the new system to unite factions that had split within the party in order to head into the general election united against the Republican Party. In at least one state, Arkansas, the Democratic Party enacted the new system to prevent members of the Klu Klux Klan from winning party primaries with a small plurality of the vote.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said that the primary and runoff system was intended "to encourage candidates to broaden their appeal to a wider range of voters, to reduce the likelihood of electing candidates who are at the ideological extremes of a party, and to produce a nominee who may be more electable in the general election. Now that the South is solidly Republican, the same issues still hold true."

See also

• Primary election
• Electoral system
• Majority voting system