From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Originally published Friday, Dec. 5

… [T]he absurd state law that forced runoff elections Tuesday for the U.S. Senate … is a relic of the bad days of one-party, segregationist rule in Georgia, when the winner of the Democratic primary usually coasted unopposed to victory in November. It ought to be abandoned.

The runoff law was adopted in Georgia and other states throughout the South around the time of the Voting Rights Act, when white politicians feared blacks would rally behind a single candidate who would get a plurality of votes in a crowded race. Since then, the requirement has become an expensive albatross that hands a relatively small number of voters an inordinate amount of power.

At a cost of at least $1 million, for example, the second round of elections this year drew barely half the turnout of the November elections.

All but eight states decide elections based simply on which candidate gets the most votes. Georgia has held on to the antiquated 50 percent-plus-one-vote rule largely for partisan rather than rational reasons.

… Georgia should get in step with other states and end the 50 percent rule once and for all. …