ATLANTA — No matter who wins Tuesday’s US Senate runoff, look for some Georgia lawmakers to attempt to eliminate the runoff. But an 11Alive news poll shows voters like it – sort of.
The poll was conducted by SurveyUSA and surveyed 1,800 Georgia adults between Nov. 26-30, of whom 1,214 were determined to be likely voters.
"I think they should do it just one time, and let the votes count, and see who wins," Gwinnett County voter Chip Williams said, who was among those who would have rather not have to come back to vote a second time in the US Senate race.
That process would have settled the US Senate race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock. Warnock would have won with less than fifty percent of the vote.
And that makes some Georgia voters uneasy. "Especially after the last couple of elections cycles – 2016, 2020 -- people questioning the elections, it’s probably best to make things a little more certain" with a runoff, said Gwinnett County voter Carl Shelley.
An 11Alive News poll of likely runoff voters shows that 52% want the state to continue to hold runoff elections.
And 21% said the state should switch to ranked-choice or approval voting – which lets folks cast multiple votes to get one candidate to a majority on the first try.
There were 16% who said they favor plurality voting, declaring the winner to be whoever gets the most votes, even if it’s less than 50 percent. Nearly every other state does this, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
The other 10% said they weren't sure about keeping the runoff.
William Hill, a DeKalb resident who voted early this week, said he thinks Georgia should use ranked voting, which provides an instant runoff if there’s no majority for a candidate.
State Rep. Dewey McClain (D-Lawrenceville) once said he favored eliminating the runoff.
But McClain said he now sees value in having runoffs and candidates earning a majority vote. "It needs to be fifty percent plus one," McClain said after voting in the US Senate runoff this week.
Current state law allows a ranked voting instant runoff for Georgians living overseas and military. That could be a foot in the door if lawmakers seek to change the law to eliminate runoffs for all voters.