Auburn University's Student Government Association voted Monday to expand the ranked choice voting system of other major candidates to include the Miss Auburn and Miss Homecoming elections.
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, has voters rank candidates for an office or position in order of preference. According to the bill presented by Senator Jake Yohn, this system works by eliminating the candidate with the lowest number of votes, and ballots listing that candidate as a first option will have their next choice counted instead. This process repeats round by round, eliminating the candidate with the least votes until a candidate earns at least 50% of the vote.
The expansion of the ranked choice voting system is meant to streamline the Miss Auburn and Miss Homecoming election processes; create healthier interactions between campaigners and students; and lessen the effects of more confrontational campaign tactics.
“Students have been very vocal against the idea of these races becoming ultra, ultra competitive,” Yohn said during his presentation. “When you go on the concourse being berated because of the way the system works now, whoever gets your vote first, that’s all that matters. Whoever has the best and aggressive campaigners that get you right when you come off the bus, that’s who wins.”
The bill passed with a vote of 23-6 after some debate on the SGA senate floor over whether or not there was a way to game the system, which Yohn emphatically refuted.
“The only thing that I was really concerned about is could it be rigged?” Sen. Carter Inman said after the meeting. “Jake clearly answered that it could not, so I’m all good.”
Sen. Luke Troutman thought the new voting system would have a positive effect on students on the concourse during election season.
“I think it’s a good change. I think it protects a little bit of election integrity,” Troutman said. “One common issue you see with that is all those election guys on the concourse, you just get swarmed. I think it might taper off some of the aggression because if you’re not number one, you can still be two or three and have just as good a chance.”
The ranked choice voting system has been used by SGA to elect candidates for president, vice president and treasurer since 2020 and has done so with the broad approval of the student body.
In spring 2019, an amendment to the SGA constitution to allow ranked choice voting for those positions needed to be passed by the students. The amendment passed with 71% of the student body vote.
The 6,263 votes that comprised the 71% majority are more than any one SGA candidate has received when not running unopposed. Over 8,800 students voted on the amendment, which is more voter turnout than the runoff election for mayor of the city of Auburn the previous year.
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Jack Fawcett is a sports production major from San Diego, California. He started with The Plainsman in January 2023.
