Majority no more? Councilors push to reverse 2017 election change

Proposal would let Sioux Falls council candidates win with 35 percent plurality

The Sioux Falls City Council is considering scrapping an eight-year-old rule that requires council candidates win a majority of the vote to be elected.

A pair of city councilors this week introduced a proposal to lower the threshold for victory in municipal races to 35 percent, doing away with the current requirement that candidates must secure more than 50 percent of the vote to win. That rule, passed in 2017 by a narrow 5-4 vote with then-Mayor Mike Huether casting the tiebreaker, put council elections under the same standard long used in mayoral races.

Showdown looms as competing election ideas emerge in Sioux Falls