The potential price tag doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to the idea of holding run-off elections in Iowa to choose party nominees if the winner isn’t chosen during primary voting.

Under current Iowa law, if no candidate in a Primary Election gets at least 35 percent of the vote, party delegates at a convention choose their nominee for the November ballot. Representative Guy Vander Linden, a Republican from Oskaloosa, sponsored a bill last session that would have shifted to a run-off election instead.

None of the six Republican candidates in the third congressional district primary won at least 35 percent, so about 500 Republican delegates picked the nominee. That cost of running that convention was the responsibility of the Iowa Republican Party. Senator Jeff Danielson, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, leads the Senate State Government Committee that consider switching to run-off elections.

It would cost counties at least half a million dollars if a primary contest for a statewide office had to be decided with a run-off election. Governor Terry Branstad says he’s open to considering a run-off system, but the cost factor must be measured.