Majority no more? Councilors push to reverse 2017 election change
The Sioux Falls City Council is considering scrapping an eight-year-old rule that requires council candidates win a majority of the vote to be elected.
A pair of city councilors this week introduced a proposal to lower the threshold for victory in municipal races to 35 percent, doing away with the current requirement that candidates must secure more than 50 percent of the vote to win. That rule, passed in 2017 by a narrow 5-4 vote with then-Mayor Mike Huether casting the tiebreaker, put council elections under the same standard long used in mayoral races.
Councilor Richard Thomason, who sponsored the proposed change alongside Councilor David Barranco, said the current system creates unnecessary barriers for candidates and costly elections for Sioux Falls taxpayers.
“It costs the city more money, it costs the candidate more money and it costs everyone more time,” said Thomason, who earned about 45 percent of the vote in the 2024 spring election, which forced him into a runoff he ultimately won.
https://www.siouxfallslive.com/news/sioux-falls/majority-no-more-councilors-push-to-reverse-2017-election-change