District 7 residents go back to the polls -- why do we do runoff elections?

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austinites in north Austin are going back to the polls starting Monday to once again vote for their pick in the Austin City Council District 7 race after no one candidate reached more than 50% of the overall vote in the general election.

It's called a runoff election.

"One of the things about runoffs is it guarantees that the person who represents you does have an actual majority of the vote, whether it be in the first round where there is no runoff, or the second round, where somebody is going to get that 50% — so it's a way of ensuring that the people who represent you are actually selected by the majority of voters in that election," said St. Edward's University political science professor Brian Smith.

But runoff elections are also expensive, have low turnout and groups like Fair Vote -- a nonpartisan organization that works on elections -- have told KXAN are less equitable.

"We've looked at runoffs all the way back to 1994, and all federal primary runoffs, and we saw that there was often larger declines and among communities of color," Jeremy Rose, a policy analyst for Fair Vote previously told KXAN.

That's why in 2021, Austinites voted to move to ranked choice voting instead, which means you would rank the candidates from most to least favorite when you go to vote the first time.

If a candidate got a majority of the vote outright, they would win the election. But if not, the last place candidate would be eliminated and the supporters of that candidate would have their ballots transferred to their next rank choice until someone won majority.

"But it is a difficult system to implement at first. It's very confusing to a lot of people, and the state doesn't like it at all," Smith said.

Which is why we still do a runoff system and why District 7 voters will head to vote again this December. Texas hasn't signed off on ranked choice voting and despite several legislative attempts, those have not made it through session.

Here’s what you need to know about the runoff:

• Only District 7 residents are allowed to vote in this race
• Dec. 2: Early voting begins
• Dec 3: Last day to apply for ballot by mail
• Dec. 10: Last day of early voting
• Dec. 14: Election Day