Opinion
 

Plurality rule is effective

Jim McCormick

Though you might not have seen it in Wednesday's issue of The Daily Cougar, the Residence Halls Association selected its Election Commissioner last night in the Oberholtzer Hall cafeteria. If you weren't there, consider yourself lucky. It took three ballots and the better part of an hour to elect Portia-Elaine Gant to the position. 

The main problem that caused the selection process to drag on for so long was the RHA constitution requires a two-thirds majority of the people present at the meeting to select the Election Commissioner.

Similar requirements have launched us into a runoff election for the Student Government Association's vice president position between Matt Bell and Alysia Minor. In that election, it requires a simple majority vote to win a post outright in the first round of voting. That runoff began at 8 a.m. Wednesday and continues until 7 p.m. today.

Again, a runoff was required in the recent mayoral elections between Bill White and former city council member Orlando Sanchez.

In both cases, time could have been saved if the election could have been decided by a plurality of votes. In that case, another candidate would have taken the RHA position, Bell would have taken the SGA post and White would still be mayor.

These runoff elections took time, and, in the case of the SGA and mayoral races, cost money. This time and money could have been better spent doing other things, such as studying, preparing for the next administration and generally improving the community. But instead, the excesses of required majority vote in situations where candidates have similar numbers of confirmed supporters took precedent over getting things done.

Most national elections are decided by a plurality vote, meaning that whoever gets the most votes wins, regardless of whether the number of votes that candidate received represented a majority of votes. Of course, the only exception is the presidency, which must be decided by a majority of the Electoral College, or the race gets deferred to the House of Representatives, where a plurality can win the presidency. This system has proven effective for choosing representatives, especially when more than two people run for an office. It was effective in choosing incumbent Laura Salinas over David Williams in the race for SGA Student Regent by a margin of one vote.

A plurality vote can be just as effective in gauging the will of the people as a majority vote, especially when there are more than two candidates for a position. Furthermore, it almost completely eliminates the need for a runoff, with a tie being the only reason such an event would occur. It would have saved time in every case, and would have gotten people back to their regular business much sooner.

American democracy isn't about majority rule, but plurality rule. Why should this be different at any other level of government?

McCormick, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at rantman_2000@yahoo.com.