Runoff debate strikes over 50-percent-plus-one rule

On Tuesday, it’s highly likely that only a fraction of Georgia voters will trek yet again to the polls. They will refine, and perhaps override, decisions made by a robust majority on Nov. 4.

This strikes some as unfair.

“Georgia is a total aberration,” Wyche Fowler, 68, said the other day. “I think it’s unconstitutional. But whether it’s unconstitutional or not, it’s extremely unwise.”

Sixteen years ago, Fowler was a first-term U.S. senator up for re-election —- a Democrat facing a Republican challenger, Paul Coverdell. The Libertarian in the race gathered a few crucial votes, and Fowler found himself with only 49.23 percent of 2.25 million ballots cast.

Georgia is the only state that requires the winner of a general election contest to win by 50 percent —- plus one vote. Three weeks later, the 635,114 votes that Coverdell earned in a pre-Thanksgiving runoff overruled the 1.1 million votes Fowler received in the general election.

“That’s disenfranchisement,” Fowler said.

Regardless, Fowler was ousted. Democrats in control of the Legislature changed the state’s 50-percent-plus-one law so that the winner needed to win only a plurality —- so long as that plurality exceeded 45 percent.

Shortly after Republicans took over the state Capitol, they restored the 50-percent-plus-one provision, on the theory that any act perpetrated by Democrats was designed to short-change the GOP.

Indeed, this act probably was. White and older voters, who tend to vote Republican, are more likely to show up for a runoff than African-American voters, who tend toward the Democratic ticket.

Tinkering with election laws always seems to backfire.

Four weeks ago, thanks again to a Libertarian candidate in the race, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss won only 49.8 percent of 3.7 million cast in the U.S. Senate race. Democrat Jim Martin came in second with 46.8 percent.

It was deja vu.

And you won an extra month’s worth of venom spewed through your TV set.

The 50-percent-plus-one trap also has snared one of two contests for seats on the Public Service Commission.

Democrat Jim Powell came away with a leading 47.9 percent of the vote on the first Tuesday of November. He faces Republican Lauren McDonald in tomorrow’s runoff.

How many voters will show up Tuesday to render final judgments?

In 1992, 39 percent of registered voters returned for the U.S. Senate runoff.

In 1998, 2004, and 2006, turnout for statewide runoffs averaged 4 percent.

Local governments, which shoulder most of the cost of runoff elections, are likely to ask the Legislature to take a look at repealing the 50-percent-plus-one provision come January.

“In a time of financial stress, these elections are very expensive,” said Jerry Griffin, executive director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Don’t look for anything to happen quickly.

State Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) is chairman of the House committee that screens changes to state election law.

He acknowledges a certain mathematical strangeness to runoffs.

“There is the question of should 51 percent of 10 percent of the voters trump 49 percent of five times that number,” Scott said.

With an Obama administration soon to be in charge of the U.S. Justice Department, and Georgia subject to its oversight on voter issues, the Legislature is likely to move cautiously on changes to election law, Scott said.

The House chairman said he would look at the 50-percent rule —- if asked.

He’s more amenable to shortening the 45-day early voting period, offsetting any reduction in that window by allowing counties to open more than one polling station.

That’s more likely to result in a financial savings for counties, Scott said.

Victories by Republicans in the U.S. Senate and PSC runoffs on Tuesday are also likely to restore any lost GOP confidence in the state’s 50-percent-plus-one law.

That might be bad news for you and your TV set.

If you’re a Libertarian with ambition, it means you can make a difference in Georgia politics for some time to come.

jgalloway@ajc.com