Reinstate Runoff Elections in Virginia
Email to Sen. Charles Carrico, prior to the Virginia General Assembly
(Please try again on 2015's SB 742.)
-- David Swink, January 11, 2016
Dear Senator Carrico:
My name is David Swink, and I am on the board and webmaster for the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance up here in Northern Virginia -- that foreign "blue" place the rest of Virginia sneers at. We conservatives up here feel like we have "taxation without representation". So I'm contacting you, rather than our local Va. delegation.
I've been following the issue of runoff elections ever since Gov. Terry McAuliffe and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner were elected with less than 50 percent of the vote. I understand that you were the sponsor of 2015's SB 742, which would have corrected this, and which failed to get through both chambers under mysterious circumstances.
I'm providing links to three articles I've posted on our web site (www.fcta.org)...
2015-03-02 Watchdog.org: Runoff elections ensure majority rule -- so why not in Virginia?
2015-02-09 WT: Senate bill calls for runoff vote in close elections, by David Sherfinski
2014-11-08 FCTA: Virginia Democrats' BFF: Robert Sarvis and the GOP, by David Swink
I had not realized that (from the Watchdog.org article) Virginia had had a runoff process in place in the past. (How it ceased to be might be interesting.) Our system simply doesn't accommodate more than two parties fairly without such a check in place.
Please try again to address the issue of runoff elections once more -- instant or otherwise (an an election officer, I prefer saving the time and expense of a second round). You'd be doing a great service for the Commonwealth.
Thank you.
-- David Swink, Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance