Election Reform for Raleigh

City Council will meet on Tuesday, May 16 for a second work session on election reform.

Here are our recommendations:

ELECTION FORMAT

Implement a primary to eliminate our current plurality election*

There are only a few ways to eliminate the plurality election the previous council stuck us with. The best would be to implement Ranked Choice Voting, also known as Instant Runoff elections. But, the Council has been told the State Legislature will not approve Ranked Choice Voting for Raleigh. The only other option is to implement a primary election starting in March of 2024. 

TERM LENGTH

(The Tricia Cotham Rule)

We support maintaining two-year terms

Tricia Cotham! What more needs to be said? Certainly all of her voters are breathing a sigh of relief she wasn’t elected to a four-year term. The voters of Raleigh deserve no less.

SIZE OF COUNCIL

Add three more districts

Raleigh has had five Council Districts since the 1970s.** Adding three districts will bring the council size to a total of 11. With our current population, each District Councilor is reprsenting 90,000 residents. Adding 3 districts will bring that number down to 56,000.

Livable Raleigh Editorial Team

* Plurality Election – An election format that does NOT allow for a run-off if no candidate in the race receives over 50% of the votes. In this style of election the ultimate winner may garner far less than 50%. Especially if there are a large number of candidates running for the office.

** Council makeup – Raleigh City Council currently has eight members. The Mayor, two At-Large Councilors and five District Councilors.

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