A New Open Voting System to Solve the Debt Ceiling Mess – and Much More

Unless Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling soon, the government will run out of money, and millions of Americans will suffer. Even if resolution comes in the nick of time, this sordid scenario needs to end for the future. We can do that with a new, open voting system: Final Five Voting.

Raising the debt ceiling should take a few hours of the legislative day. Congress has already decided what can be raised and spent, and the Treasury issues bonds to cover the difference. The ceiling has been raised more than 100 times as a matter of course, but lately the process has become a political pageant, with members of both parties playing melodramatic roles that put our economy in jeopardy.

I have four decades of experience in business leadership, and I can tell you first-hand that playing politics with our financial system is irresponsible and dangerous.

A big reason we face this threat every few years is the way we elect members of Congress. Party primary voters (on both sides) would rather have their representatives bash the other party than legislate in the public interest. That won’t change until states fix the Congressional election system itself – which the U.S. Constitution gives them the power to do.

Most House members and Senators sit in seats that are safe for one party or the other, so the only election that counts is the primary, where few voters participate, and the ones who do have positions more aligned with their party’s extremes.

A study of the 2022 mid-terms found that 359 of 435 House seats were decided months before the general election by just 8% of voters nationwide. In its forecast for 2024, the Cook Political Report rated just 21 House races as “toss-ups.”

So, legislators are beholden to primary voters, many of whom are characterized by negative partisanship – that is, they despise the other party. Representatives have to mirror that animosity, or they risk being “primaried” by someone who is ever more extreme.

The debate over raising the debt ceiling provides the perfect opportunity for blasting the other party and making empty threats as way to emphasize hot-button issues. For example, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he would not vote to raise the debt ceiling until all asylum seekers are kept in detention centers. House Republicans passed a bill on April 26 that lifts the ceiling only if the budget is cut by $4.5 trillion – a fantasy that won’t become law but appeals to partisan primary voters. Democrats, meanwhile, excite their own primary voters by attacking Republicans as “hypocrites” who want to “go after working families. And over time, even though everyone knows our level of debt is unsustainable, no one does the actual work of reining in spending.

But there is a solution to this play-acting. Eliminate party primaries altogether and replace them with a preliminary round open to voters and candidates of all parties and independents. The top five finishers then compete in the general election, where a series of instant runoffs produces a winner with majority support.

This system, called Final Five Voting (FFV), is already working. A modified version, with four candidates in the general election, was approved by Alaska voters in 2020 and used in the general election last November to elect Lisa Murkowski, a centrist Republican Senator; Mary Peltola, a centrist Democratic Representative; Mike Dunleavy, a Governor with the backing of Donald Trump; and a host of state legislators of both parties. What these winners have in common is that they are freed from the tyranny of the party primary, making them accountable to the full voting population.

The results are evident. Peltola immediately named a Republican as her chief of staff, and Alaska’s Senate and House are now run by a bipartisan majority coalition.

Also last November, Nevada voters passed a ballot measure to switch to Final Five Voting, and more than 10 states are moving to institute Final Five Voting. One of them is Wisconsin, where bipartisan legislation was introduced last year. The stability of our financial system is one of the many reasons that I support the work of Democracy Found, a group pushing for Final Five in Wisconsin.

Members of Congress elected by Final Five Voting will act as a fulcrum, with leverage to force the House and Senate to take actions like raising the debt limit without delay and meeting serious national challenges such as immigration, budget deficits, and gun safety.

Final Five Voting changes not who is elected – a Republican district is still likely to elect a Republican – but how legislators behave once they get in office. Because they will be chosen in general elections, winners will have to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, not the narrow slice of voters who participate in a party primary.

Winners under Final Five Voting have the incentive to reach across the aisle and, through give and take, craft solutions – and then vote “yes” even if they don’t agree with every clause of a bill. Barriers to entry fall, competition becomes healthy, and a wider range of candidates raises new ideas with broader appeal.

Absent Final Five Voting, legislators won’t change. Why should they? Party primary voters reward them for the grandstanding we are seeing right now with the debt ceiling. But there is a better way.

Jeff Joerres is Executive Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of ManpowerGroup and a member of the leadership of Democracy Found.