Instant runoff voting is slowing down.

Only one North Carolina town — Hendersonville — will use the voting method this year as part of a pilot project.

After using instant-runoff voting, plurality elections and traditional runoffs, the Cary Town Council decided to stick with a traditional runoff.

Instant runoff voting is a newer method that avoids the expense of a second election by allowing voters to designate a second choice on their ballot. If no candidate wins a majority, second-choice votes are then counted, essentially creating an "instant" runoff.

Wednesday was the deadline for a town or city to volunteer with the State Board of Elections for the voting method in this fall's elections.

Voter activist Joyce McCloy, who opposes IRV, called it a "blow to lobbying groups who had set their hopes" on Cary.

The labor commissioner runoff will cost between $3.5 and $5 million.

The cost will be shared by each of the 100 counties participating in the runoff between John C. Brooks and Mary Fant Donnan, though some may pay more if other local races drive turnout, said State Board of Elections deputy director Johnnie Mclean.

In previous primary runoffs, turnout has been as low as 3 percent and as high as 16 percent, though Mclean estimates it will be at the lower end.

Under state law, the runner-up may request a runoff if no candidate receives more than 40 percent of the vote. Brooks, who received 24.4 percent of the vote in a four-way race, came in second to Donnan, who received 27.5 percent.

He said he requested a runoff because it is an "educational opportunity."

"The people of North Carolina would have known nothing more about the issues in the Department of Labor than the man in the moon," he said. "The opportunity to save billions of dollars for the people of North Carolina could have gone by, just like it did four years ago."

Brooks also dismissed the idea of instant-runoff voting, in which voters' second-choice picks are counted if no candidate gets a majority. The towns of Cary and Hendersonville held instant-runoff elections last fall under a pilot program.

The three Republican candidates for governor will debate in Hendersonville.

The Henderson County Republican Party and the Republican Men's Club have announced they will jiontly sponsor a 90-minute debate at 8 a.m. on March 26. The location has not been determined.

State Sen. Fred Smith, Salisbury attorney Bill Graham and former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr are slated to attend, according to Jordan Schrader's blog.

Orr, a Hendersonville native, could have a home-court advantage.