The magazine of the North Carolina Center for Voter Education • Saturday May 19, 2012

Voters Can Cast a 'Backup Plan' this Election

By Damon Circosta
Published: Oct. 4, 2010

RALEIGH - Sometimes in life your first choice doesn’t work out.  Perhaps the college you really want to go to doesn’t admit you. Maybe your favorite ice cream flavor is sold out. While it might be wonderful if we always got the thing we want most, we need to be prepared when it doesn’t happen.

In such circumstances it’s good to have a backup plan. Like picking a “safety school” or being ready to order rocky road if they are out of chocolate chip, it makes sense to have a solid second choice.

This fall North Carolina is experimenting with a backup plan called “instant runoff voting.” This process will be used statewide for the N.C. Court of Appeals seat made vacant when Judge Jim Wynn was appointed to the federal appeals court.

Due to the timing of the vacancy, a primary could not be held before the fall election.  As such, 13 candidates are competing for this one seat that will appear near the end of your ballot.

In this race, you’ll be asked to rank your top-three choices in order of preference -- first, second and third.  If no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the first-place votes, then the top two voter-getters will move on to a runoff election.  If your first-place choice doesn’t make it to this runoff, but your second or third choice does, your vote goes to the candidate you ranked higher.  At the end of the runoff, the candidate with the most votes wins.

This process is called “instant runoff voting” because you can select your second and third preferences at the “instant” you vote on Election Day.  Otherwise it could mean returning to the polls for a separate runoff election in December, with taxpayers footing the $5 million bill and far fewer voters likely to cast a ballot.

This is the first time that an instant runoff election has ever been conducted statewide anywhere in the nation. In order to ensure that all of the ballots are correctly tallied, it may take some time to find out who the winner is in this race. While getting the votes counted quickly is a concern, election officials are justifiably more concerned with getting the tally right than getting it fast.

As voters, we need to be prepared for this change. The first step is getting informed about the many people who are running for this important judgeship. With so many candidates running, it can seem a daunting task. But part of being a responsible citizen is doing our homework on the candidates courting our vote.

Fortunately, the State Board of Elections is mailing a voter guide to every household in the state with a registered voter. The guide includes information on the voting process as well as statements provided by the candidates explaining their experience and qualifications.

Additionally, facts about these and other candidates can be found at NCVoterGuide.org. More information on instant runoff voting is available at Vote123NC.com. Both of these sites are produced by the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Voter Education.

Whether a race has two candidates or 20, it’s up to us to take the time to make a good choice. In this race for the N.C. Court of Appeals, we’ll be able to make more than just one choice, in case our top pick doesn’t make it to the second round.

So just as having a backup flavor is a good idea when going to the ice cream parlor, having a backup plan is an especially smart idea when heading to the polls this fall.