In theory, our form of government in North Carolina is representative democracy…but in fact, under our plurality voting system, candidates can “win” election here even when a majority vote against them. For example, in 2020 both Donald Trump and Thom Tillis won their elections despite the fact that a majority voted against them. This year, four of our US House elections feature candidates who “won” their March primary elections with only a minority of support—in one case, 74% of the voters voted against the certified winner (Addison McDowell in US 6 for whom 26.4% of the electorate voted; he finished first in a six-candidate race). There are another half-dozen “minority report” candidates on the November ballot in NCGA races.
Occasionally, our arcane plurality voting system produces runoff elections between the top two finishers. Obviously that winner does get a majority…but turnout for runoffs is notoriously terrible…you can have the winner getting fewer votes in the runoff than the loser got in the original election! And, of course, conducting a runoff doubles the cost of that election.
So, both expensive and unpopular.
Plurality voting is not the main reason that political discourse today is so divisive and dysfunctional. But because you can win an election in NC with less than a majority, candidates and office-holders have an added incentive to play to their base, as the likelihood of success of that approach is greater.
And, of course, if your election campaign is premised on the proposition that your opponent has dishonorable motives and evil supporters, if you win you are not likely to then engage in bipartisan compromise…and if you did, you’d be vulnerable to being ousted in the next primary election by a (more) true believer.