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Happy Thursday. Here's where we shift from focusing on the primaries to turning our attention to the May 26 runoffs. So let's start off with a refresher course on how runoffs work in Texas. Have questions? Hit reply, and I'll do my best to get you answers.
Think of runoffs like overtime in a football game
There were several races up and down the ballot in which no candidate crossed the 50% plus one threshold to nail down the nomination, and they'll have to be settled in the runoffs scheduled for May 26. That's the day after the Memorial Day weekend, so if you plan to vote, mark your calendar now.
The Republican race for the U.S. Senate nomination is the marquee runoff attraction, but it's not the only race. Runoffs will be needed to select both parties' nominees for Texas attorney general and for several seats in both Congress and the Legislature.
And because the rules governing runoffs might not be universally known, this would be a good time to explain how the process works in Texas.
Who may vote in the runoffs?
Voters who cast ballots in the March 3 Republican primary may vote only in the May GOP runoff. Same is true for the Democratic primary voters. Put another way, a Democratic primary voter may not vote in the Republican runoff, and a Republican primary voter may not vote in the Democratic runoff.
What if I didn't vote in either primary?
Provided that you are a registered voter, you may cast ballots in either party's runoff. But not in both. If you are not yet registered, the deadline to do so for the runoffs is April 27. Here's how to get started.
Are there any exceptions to that rule?
A few.
- Voters who take an oath to support one party at a party precinct convention may only vote in that party's primaries and runoffs during the calendar year for which the oath was taken.
- Voters who sign a petition to get candidates from a third party, such Green or Libertarian, access to the general election ballot may not vote in the Democratic or Republican primaries or runoffs.
Do all states have runoffs?
No. Texas is an outlier. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Texas is among just seven states that require a candidate to win a primary with a majority of the votes. The others are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota.
And three states — Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi — also require runoff elections in general elections when no candidate wins an outright majority.
What are some of the drawbacks to requiring runoffs?
The big one is probably the drop off in participation from primaries to runoffs.
A brief history lesson:
In 2014 the Democratic U.S. Senate runoff drew fewer than half of the voters who had turned out for the primary. That could be written off as "no harm, no foul" since both runoff candidates were little known and the runoff winner went on to get trounced by a 2-1 margin in the general election.
Incidentally, that election was won by Republican John Cornyn, who is in the fight of his political life this year against Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The more consequential version of this drop off happened in 2012 when a then largely unknown Ted Cruz upset the sitting lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, in the Republican runoff for an open U.S. Senate seat. In round one, 1.4 million voters turnout and Dewhurst got the most votes. But not quite enough.
About one-third fewer voters cast ballots in the runoff, which Cruz won with about 632,000 raw votes. Because the Texas of 2012 was unassailably Republican, the runoff victory was tantamount to a general election win.
That means only a tiny fraction of the Texas population, then about 26 million, turned Cruz from an underdog candidate into a national figure.
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