Should a mayor or alderman be elected with less than fifty percent of the vote is the question in front of the Rapid City Council. New mayor Jason Salamun advocating for his peers to answer no.
At the most recent Rapid City Council meeting was the first reading of an ordinance that would necessitate runoff elections in the event a council or mayoral candidate earned less than half of the popular vote.
Council president John Roberts, who opposed the initial ordinance to remove runoffs in 2019, said he appreciates the direction the mayor is taking.
"I was concerned at that time about someone winning with 25-30 percent – you won with 32 percent so congratulations Mr. Salamun – but I think that the voters deserve more," Roberts said. "We have very low turnouts in our elections to begin with, and when you have five people, six people, who knows what it could be in the future deleting those votes down, I really don’t see it as being the will of the people.”
City Attorney Joel Landeen said it’s an all-or-nothing ordinance.
"The default is that the person receiving the majority of the votes is elected unless the city adopts an ordinance requiring a runoff – and that’s basically all it says," Landeen said. "So, what I’ve told some people is that if this was a law school final my answer would be you either have runoffs for all municipal elections or none of them.”
That was more than enough to secure aldermen Greg Strommen’s support, who had previously advocated for a return of runoff votes.
“I’m satisfied with the city attorney’s explanation, and I think we should go forward with the proposed ordinance as-is," Strommen said. "For all of the reasons stated by councilman Roberts and just for efficiency I think it’s good government to do this, so I’ll be in favor of this.”
The ordinance was approved unanimously and will receive a second reading.