Testimony in Support of Wisconsin SB 528, “A bill relating to: top-five primaries and instant runoff voting for the offices of U.S. senator and U.S. representative in Congress”
Testimony from:
Matthew Germer, Interim Director, Governance & Elections Fellow, R Street Institute
In SUPPORT of SB 528, “A bill relating to: top-five primaries and instant runoff voting for the offices of U.S. senator and U.S. representative in Congress”
December 12, 2023
Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection
Chair Knodl, Vice Chair Feyen and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for considering my testimony. My name is Matthew Germer, and I conduct research on election reform for the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government across a variety of policy areas, including election reform. This is why Senate Bill 528 is important to us.
The best way to reform our elections is by better aligning the incentives of politicians with the will of their constituents. Senate Bill 528 creates healthier political incentives by implementing top-five primaries along with instant-runoff general elections to determine Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.
Congress Is Broken—Our Elections Play a Key Role
Right now, our country’s elections empower a small slice of Americans to determine our leaders. With highly polarized congressional districts, congressional representatives are determined not in the general election but by our partisan primary elections. This phenomenon can be seen in the results of the 2022 congressional elections, where only one of Wisconsin’s eight U.S. House races was within a five-point margin in the general election.[1] And while congressional districts contain roughly 760,000 residents, partisan primary elections are often low-turnout affairs, giving outsized influence to relatively few voters.[2] Take, for example, the election for Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District in 2020. With an open seat in a strong Republican district that ultimately was uncompetitive in the general election, just over 78,000 voters participated in the Republican primary election—just over 10 percent of the population of the district.[3] That such a small electorate would choose the representative for the entire district is not unique. Across the country, 83 percent of the U.S. House was elected by just 8 percent of Americans.[4]
The incentives created by our elections are a substantial reason for our congressional dysfunction. Right now, federal lawmakers have more reason to fear losing their seats to a challenger in a primary election than in the general. This pressure incentivizes legislators to maximize support among the narrow, energized base of primary voters who value “fighting” over “serving.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, many members of Congress now prioritize appearing on cable news above actual legislating, with one congressman famously stating “stagecraft is statecraft.”[5]
The Reforms in Senate Bill 528 Could Help
Senate Bill 528, which combines a top-five primary election with an instant runoff in the general election, shifts the meaningful election from the primary to the general. In turn, candidates are incentivized to represent a broader electorate.
Similar reforms elsewhere in the country have already borne fruit. In 2022, Alaska held its first elections using a “Top Four” format, similar to the proposed structure in Senate Bill 528. Early analysis already shows that the most successful campaigns were those that mobilized broad coalitions for support.[6] Similarly, in 2021, GOP voters in Virginia used an instant-runoff election to select Glenn Youngkin as their gubernatorial nominee. Because the electoral rules incentivized positive campaigning and discouraged mudslinging, Youngkin emerged from the primary with positive momentum that ultimately helped him win in the general election.[7]
While some may be concerned that voters might find the instant runoff voting to be confusing, the data from real voters shows that the system is easy to use. Following Alaska’s first instant-runoff election, 85 percent of voters reported that participating in the state’s instant-runoff election was “simple.”[8] The experience of Alaskans aligns with the 81 percent of Utah voters and 88 percent of Minnesota voters who found instant runoffs easy to use for their local elections.[9]
Congressional elections need reform. Too many members are more worried about being outflanked in a primary election than they are about serving their district. We encourage members of the Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection to support Senate Bill 528, a bill designed to realign political incentives, encourage more positive campaigning and give more power to all voters.
Matthew Germer
Associate Director, Governance & Elections Fellow
R Street Institute
(714) 609-6288
[email protected]
[1] “U.S. House results across Wisconsin,” Politico, Nov. 26, 2023. https://www.politico.com/2022-election/results/wisconsin/house.
[2] U.S. Census Bureau, “2020 Census apportionment results delivered to the President,” Press Release No. CB21-CN.30, April 26, 2021. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-census-apportionment-results.html.
[3] “Wisconsin Primary Election Results: Fifth Congressional District,” The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/11/us/elections/results-wisconsin-house-district-5-primary-election.html.
[4] “The Primary Problem,” Unite America, last checked Dec. 11, 2023. https://primaryproblem.uniteamerica.org.
[5] Abigail Tracy, “’If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing’: Matt Gaetz on media mastery, influence peddling and dating in Trump’s swamp,” Vanity Fair, Sept. 14, 2020. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/matt-gaetz-donald-trump-firebrand.
[6] Matt Germer, “Ranked Choice Voting Is Working in Alaska,” The Dispatch, Nov. 29, 2022. https://thedispatch.com/article/ranked-choice-voting-is-working-in-alaska/comment-page-2; Ryan Williamson, “Evaluating the Effects of the Top-Four System in Alaska,” R Street Shorts No. 122, Jan. 2023. https://www.rstreet.org/research/evaluating-the-effects-of-the-top-four-system-in-alaska.
[7] Matt Germer, “Republicans could benefit from ranked-choice voting,” RealClearPublicAffairs, Aug. 4, 2023. https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/articles/2023/08/04/republicans_could_benefit_from_ranked-choice_voting_970635.html.
[8] “Polling shows Alaskan voters understand ranked choice voting,” Alaskans for Better Elections, Aug. 30, 2022. https://www.alaskansforbetterelections.com/polling-shows-alaskan-voters-understand-ranked-choice-voting.
[9] Kyle Dunphey, “Did Utahns like ranked choice voting? A new poll has answers,” Deseret News, Nov. 15, 2021. https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/11/15/22783224/did-utahns-like-ranked-choice-voting-a-new-poll-has-answers-elections-2021-local-politics-election; “Ranked Choice Voting: By the Numbers,” FairVote Minnesota, Dec. 2021. https://fairvotemn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/RCV-by-the-numbers_Minneapolis.pdf.