UT Student Government will move from a ranked choice voting system to a simple majority in future student elections, SG president Hudson Thomas announced Sept. 2.

Thomas said the changes made to UT SG’s constitution align the University with student governments at other Southeastern Conference schools. UT now joins 13 other SEC student governments that use systems where a candidate wins if they receive a majority of the votes cast. If no candidate receives a majority, then runoff elections will determine a winner. 

Ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff, was introduced to UT elections in 2018 when the assembly brought a constitutional amendment to a student vote. The measure received 78% of student approval, according to FairVote, a national election reform organization. Benjamin Solder, an author of the bill, previously told The Texan the instant runoff system, which calculates who won on the same day as the election, aimed to eliminate the drama of runoff elections which requires a separate election when no candidate wins over 50% of the vote.

Judge Baskin, an SG Supreme Court justice, said SG should have the ability to govern itself. However, it is within the Office of the Dean of Students right to make any changes to SG and its operations, according to the constitution. He said a ranked-choice election system is fairer to the student body. 

“(Ranked-choice voting) also encourages people to learn more about other candidates,” said Baskin, a Plan II and journalism junior. “At its best, it’s a fairer way of running SG elections … at its worst, you basically get normal single choice voting.”  

Michael Goodman, a professor who studies SG constitutions, made recommendations to remove ranked choice voting to the Dean of Students and SG’s Executive Board. He said SG was historically meant to mirror the U.S. government, and having student elections mirror national elections, where there is no ranked-choice voting, is important.  

“Moving from rank voting to simple majority is also not uncommon,” Goodman said. “There are some schools that do rank voting, some schools that don’t.”  

Finance junior Anthony Nguyen, current speaker of the assembly, said ranked-choice voting helped him avoid a toxic campaign environment when running as a freshman year representative. He said this system allowed him to campaign on the things he stood for, rather than having to fight for a student’s single vote.  

“It was useful in my freshman campaign and sophomore campaign to have a system where you could support multiple people,” Nguyen said. “(We) can’t endorse each other, but … we’re not necessarily competing so heavily that any (negative) feelings come up.”