Houstonians must vote again for mayor, controller and seven city council seats.

According to a Third Way analysis, in 2020, Harris County spent $1,696,591 on primaries and an additional $669,674 on runoffs. Voter turnout for the runoff decreased, as is typical, by 44%.

If Houston had ranked-choice voting, additional taxpayer cost to administer a second election, added costs for candidates and donors, and decreased voter participation in the final determination would have been avoided. Winners would already be known.

On March 1, only 17.4 percent of registered Texans went to the polls to vote in our midterm primaries. On May 24, we will participate in an unnecessary party primary runoff election. Pandemic or not, runoff voting turnout has always been historically low and campaigning for a runoff between the primary and general elections can be costly. Imagine the effort and money that could be saved if a runoff election weren’t required. Many local elections come down to a runoff, which requires people to make the effort to get out and vote a second time.

Maine used ranked-choice voting in the Nov. 3, 2020 election and New York City used it to elect its mayor and city council in 2021.

The horrific images of a Confederate flag-waving mob storming Congress mark a dark day in our nation’s democracy, but it is perhaps even scarier to realize that this insurrection is a mere symptom of a deeper disease infecting our nation.