New Ohio Legislation Would Give Voters Better Choice and Produce Stronger, Clearer Election Results

Top 3 plus Head-to-Head Matchups offers a practical innovation to reduce spoiler risk, expand voter choice, and elect candidates with broader support

Ohio voters deserve elections that produce leaders who work for the voters. New legislation introduced by Ohio state Senator Louis W. Blessing III (District 8) aims to achieve just that.

SB 395 would create a simple two-step election system. First, there is  a primary election in which every registered Ohio voter chooses one candidate. The top three vote getters advance to the general election. Second, in the general election, voters get a say in each head-to-head matchup of the top three candidates. The candidate who beats each of the others head-to-head is the election winner. 

This is designed to expand voter choice while ensuring the election winner is the candidate who best and most fairly reflects the voters’ choices.

“This is a really important development,” says Edward Foley, Director of Election Law at Ohio State and Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law. “If this law is adopted, it will allow elections to produce what the voters really want.”

The proposal comes at a moment when the need for innovation in Ohio is becoming harder to ignore. As minor-party candidacies become more likely to affect outcomes in competitive  contests, the risk of spoiler-style results is increasing. At the same time, many voters across the political spectrum say they do not feel well represented by elected officials, and campaigns often rely on division and wedge issues rather than broad public support.

Florenz Plassman, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science and Economics at Xavier University points out, “Top Three plus head-to-head matchups in the general election is a simple and feasible solution to the harmful division in current American politics.” 

“A Top Three open nonpartisan primary plus Head-to-Head matchups in the general election results in a consensus, which has the advantages of all other election system innovations but none of the disadvantages,” says former Republican Ohio lawmaker Gene Krebs. 

“Opening the primary and requiring a majority of votes to win the general election instills healthy competition that directly benefits each voter and their preference,” adds former Democratic Ohio lawmaker Sean Logan. 

“We’ve worked together for 3 decades and come from opposite sides of the aisle and opposite sides of the state. Our travels throughout Ohio in the past few years has revealed a hunger by Ohioans for less rancor and more attention,” say Mr. Krebs and Mr. Logan, who are co-chairing Better Choices for Ohio, a new initiative to support election innovation.

Top Three plus Head-to-Head Matchups is designed to fit Ohio’s specific needs while being both practical and easy to understand. 

The innovation has several advantages for Ohio voters:

• It keeps the primary election familiar and simple.

• Top Three establishes fairness for the 71% of Ohioans who are registered as unaffiliated voters and currently do not get a say in who will be the candidates on their ballot in November. 

• It gives all voters a more meaningful say in the general election.

• It helps reduce concerns about “spoilers.”

• It rewards candidates who can earn support from a broader range of voters.

• It produces transparent, verifiable results that the public can easily review.

“This method of voting gives individuals the fullest value of their vote and, thereby, the fullest voice in their democracy,” says Katherine M. Robiadek, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Xavier University.

The proposal is also tailored to Ohio’s existing election framework. Ballot design and administration would be tied to county boards of elections and state directives, and post-election verification would align with Ohio’s current audit processes.

“As someone who grew up in Akron, attended St. Vincent-St. Mary's High School, and went on to Ohio University, it means a lot to see my home state take the lead on electoral innovation that rewards candidates who build broad support and ensures that every voter has an equal say in choosing their representatives,” says Dr. Eric Pacuit, who developed an app to see for yourself how easy and intuitive Top Three plus Head-to-Head really is.

At its core, the case for innovation is simple: Ohio voters should have better choices, better representation, and election results that clearly reflect the will of the people.

Learn more about Top Three plus Head-to-Head:  https://www.betterchoicesohio.org/. 

See how works it works on the app: https://app.betterchoicesohio.org/