The February 8th Norman mayoral primary election is going to a runoff April 5th. The candidates in that runoff will be Breea Clark and Larry Heikkila. Other February 8th Norman elections going into runoffs are City Council Ward 4 and Norman Public Schools Board Office No. 2.

Runoff elections often have low turnout because of voter fatigue, where people get tired of voting and may decide to skip one or more elections. Governments have to pay for the additional elections, taking money away from other services. If work shifts interfere with voting, Oklahoma law requires businesses to allow time off for voting during working hours (with some restrictions).

Enacting instant runoff voting would eliminate the need for and expense of a separate runoff, requiring the winner having the support of most voters.

Instant runoff election laws let voters rank candidates but usually do not force them to do that. So if the only candidate you like is Candidate B, you can just rank that candidate as your first choice and stop there. If you have other preferences, you can rank those candidates as well, up to any limit that might be imposed by the law. For  instance:

  CANDIDATE      RANKING

  Candidate A:           2
  Candidate B:       1
  Candidate C:               3
  Candidate D:                     [ranking left blank]

Then all the number one ranked candidates are listed from most first-ranked votes to least. Whoever gets the least votes is eliminated, and if your first choice is eliminated, your second choice candidate gets your vote. This continues until a candidate has a clear majority and is declared a winner. The process acts as a series of near-instantaneous runoff elections.

Other US cities and the state of Maine have already implemented this voting method. The November 8, 2022 Alaska General Election will use ranked choice, per the Alaska Division of Elections, Ranked Choice Voting FAQ 

Support Rank the Vote Oklahoma in bringing Instant Runoff Voting to Oklahoma. Volunteering can be as simple as going to a few meetings to learn about instant runoff voting and then asking your friends to get involved, or it could be a larger commitment like participating in or hosting events, becoming a speaker to share information with other groups or in pursuit of endorsements, or doing research, as needed. If you have the means to provide financial support, donations will be gratefully accepted.