Clearwater considers a March referendum: Should elections have runoffs?

CLEARWATER — More candidates have filed to run in the last two City Council elections than ever before, leading Clearwater leaders to consider whether the city has outgrown its voting system.

Now, officials are moving to let voters decide.

Next month, the council is expected to consider language for a March 19 ballot referendum asking residents whether the city should have runoffs for the top two vote-getters in a race if no candidate earns more than 50%. Under the current system, the candidate who gets a plurality of votes for a council seat wins the race and no further votes are taken.

If the measure were to pass, the city’s elections, normally in March of even years, would move to August beginning in 2026 to coincide with state and national primaries. Runoffs would be held in November with general elections.

Many city races over the decades have drawn two to three candidates or had incumbents run unopposed. But the 2020 and 2022 elections had races with three to five candidates, resulting in council members being elected without 50% of votes in the system where the top vote-getter wins outright.

Mayor Brian Aungst Sr. pushed the runoff system during a Tuesday work session, saying Clearwater has evolved to require the change so that officials take office with a clear mandate.

“I just think it’s time for a city this size to let the voters decide if they want this,” Aungst said of runoffs.

Former council member Hoyt Hamilton also pushed the issue in 2021, which resulted in a monthslong debate over adopting a ranked choice voting system. The council ultimately dropped the initiative because Florida prohibits that method, where voters rank candidates in order of preference.

The structure avoids the need for runoffs because if no candidate gets 50%, the least popular candidate is eliminated and their ballots are redistributed to those voters’ second-choice candidates until a majority emerges. The council in 2021 favored the system over creating runoff elections if it were legally feasible.

On Tuesday, council members David Allbritton and Lina Teixeira backed the mayor’s proposal to have voters decide on runoffs at the polls. They directed City Attorney David Margolis to craft the ballot language, which he said will return to the council in October for a vote. Council member Mark Bunker was absent.

Council member Kathleen Beckman opposed the runoff idea, saying it would be more costly for candidates and exclude lower-income residents without access to high-dollar donors, conflicting with recent efforts to increase diversity in the office. In July, the council voted to increase the salaries of the elected officials to attract candidates beyond retirees or the independently wealthy. Beckman and Bunker voted no.

Beckman also opposed the idea of creating runoffs without also establishing districts to narrow the geography where candidates have to run. Currently, the five council seats are all elected at-large.

“If what we really want is to open up our dais to people of more diverse incomes and backgrounds, having them run a citywide race twice with a runoff during an expensive time of the year to run is not going to increase diversity up here,” Beckman said.

Allbritton said he wasn’t worried about the cost being prohibitive because candidates are not required to spend their own money in races.

“I don’t care if you’re white, Black, green, if you’re somebody that has put time in and are recognized as a good candidate for the city, the citizens of Clearwater will back you for that position,” Allbritton said. “If you’re a nobody and you don’t know anybody and you’re coming into a race, you probably aren’t going to be a successful candidate.”

Aungst also said moving the election dates could help increase Clearwater’s traditionally low voter turnout.

In an email to Aungst, Marc Gillette, Pinellas County chief deputy supervisor of elections, said “elections conducted in conjunction with federal, state, and countywide elections consistently result in higher voter participation.”

While creating a runoff system requires voter approval, moving election dates does not. Margolis said the council can vote on an ordinance to move the election dates, with a caveat that the change take effect only if the runoff referendum to establish runoffs passes in March.