It’s winner takes all, again, after Cary changes election method for local races

Cary voters will elect their local leaders a different way after the Town Council voted Thursday night to use the same election method most North Carolina communities use.

Since 2000, Cary has used the nonpartisan runoff election method, which lets candidates who finish second in a race in the town’s October general elections request a runoff vote in November.

That method can be expensive, council members and town staff said Thursday. For its 2023 municipal elections, Cary reimbursed Wake, Chatham and Durham counties’ boards of elections $690,711. The town is located in parts of each of those counties.

“Saving money — being cheap — is paramount,” council member Carissa Kohn-Johnson said.

The plurality method removes the possibility of a runoff. Whoever gets the most votes in the general election wins. Cary previously used the nonpartisan plurality election method from 1871-1935 and 1963-2000.

Some council members worry the plurality method might put candidates who didn’t win a majority of votes into office.

“We were having people prevailing with a small number of votes,” Mayor Pro Tem Jennifer Bryson Robinson said about why Cary chose a runoff system in the past.

Robinson supported the change “with reluctance” and said she hopes candidates won’t be winning with 25% of the vote.

One reason Kohn-Johnson is less worried about the plurality system is that runoffs often see very low voter turnout, she said.

“That’s what helps me feel a little better about this,” she said. “I do believe the runoff method is the better method, but in order to move to November, we do have to change.”

Some council members regretted not hearing more from their constituents about the change.

“I had hoped that we might have a little bit more citizen comment,” council member Jack Smith said. “I thought there might be a lot of energy around (a public) referendum. I didn’t see that happen. I was personally disappointed in that.”

The council approved changing the election method unanimously. Cary residents have 30 days to petition for a referendum vote on the change, which would require 5,000 signatures.

Barring a referendum vote, the next Town Council elections will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.

William Tong

The News & Observer

William is the metro intern at The News & Observer. He is a rising junior at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. William was previously City Editor and Copy Chief at The Daily Northwestern, and was a Student Press Freedom Day co-chair for the Student Press Law Center.