David Brain for the Kansas City Star: “Why do fringe candidates keep winning Missouri primaries? Blame an outdated voting system”

In the 1980s, when I helped organize the Missouri Young Republicans as a GOP officeholder in Jackson County, my fellow Republicans and I were unified around the reelection of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan — a visionary, generational leader — spoke to and inspired the true spirit of the American people, allowing him to garner respect from all ends of the political spectrum and foster a great sense of unity and excitement among Republicans.

Nearly 40 years later, however, we’ve certainly strayed far from the days of uniting behind The Great Communicator. Now because of increasingly narrow, uncompromising interests that have led many to ignore common ground in favor of disagreement, we have increasingly crowded primaries and intraparty discord. Republican voters are not getting what we’re voting for.

Recent elections have demonstrated this. In Missouri’s 2016 Republican gubernatorial primary, almost two-thirds of Republicans voted for someone other than the winner: Under the rules of our current voting system, Eric Greitens clinched the nomination with less than 35% of the vote. We all remember what happened from there.

Had it not been for a massive influx in outside spending, we might’ve suffered the same fate in the 2022 Republican Senate primary. Our disgraced former governor was again on track to game the system and win the nomination with only a small minority of the vote — holding on to 25% of primary voters by calling for the actual hunting of the other 75%. An unelectable, divisive candidate — who has never been supported by the majority of the Republican Party — could have squeaked through the primary yet again.

It’s clearly time for a change.

That’s why I’m supporting the Missouri Agrees campaign, which is seeking to solve the problem of crowded primaries by stopping unpopular candidates such as Greitens from undermining the will of the voters. To do this, Missouri Agrees is advocating for a small but powerful change in the way we run our elections: Give voters the freedom to vote for all the candidates they like in each primary, special and general election race — as opposed to being limited to choosing only one. It’s very similar to the way we already vote for more than one candidate in school board elections.

The Missouri Agrees plan involves no ranking, no combined primaries, and no delayed results. It is not the same as a ranked choice or instant-runoff voting system. It is about adapting a simple, commonsense model on a larger scale to protect the will of the majority, and it can yield much better outcomes.

It is a simple structural change that yields significant results. It’s like making the hole in the top of the Tabasco sauce bottle bigger. When voters are given the freedom to choose multiple candidates, vote-splitting and its negative effects on crowded elections are eliminated. Candidates with broad appeal win over those with only a narrow base of support — better protecting the will of the majority. Leaders are more accountable to all of their constituents as they seek to engage the entire electorate in order to secure newly available votes. True competition emerges, incentivizing problem-solving while discouraging personal attacks and infighting.

Missouri Agrees is also advocating for the codification of various best practices into the Missouri Constitution to ensure trustworthy elections statewide. Included in this section are policies that would require the removal of deceased individuals from the voter rolls, ensure fair and unbiased language for ballot measures, guarantee ballot access for all qualified candidates and political parties, and require audits of 5% of precincts in every county before election certification.

It’s time we start building consensus around more unifying candidates and stop allowing our broken elections, and our state, to fall prey to divisive candidates who are not supported by a majority of voters. I’m proud to support the Missouri Agrees plan, a fundamental step in protecting the will of the people of Missouri and creating more effective, accountable government. Visit missouriagrees.org to learn more.

David Brain is a former Jackson County Republican Party committee member and co-founder and CEO of a publicly traded company based in Kansas City.

Read this Guest Commentary on the Kansas City Star website here.