Maryland State Senator Richard Colburn (R-Cambridge) has introduced SB 327. It requires run-off general elections, if no candidate received 50%. The bill also requires run-off primaries when no one got 50% in a primary. The run-offs would be held 3 weeks later.
SB 327 could result in having four elections: the primary, the run-off primary, the general election, and the run-off general election. Although it’s not always the case, the run-offs tend to have lower turnout. Using IRV would be better.
Agreed. The cost of runoff elections plus the almost inevitable super low turnout makes this a bad bill. The concept is nice, making winners get 50%, but as Tom points out the best and cheapest way to do that is with IRV (or some variant thereof). I live in Maryland and will be contacting legislators about this.