Ranked choice voting benefits Virginia’s diverse localities
Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities, represented by just as many local governing bodies in the form of county boards of supervisors and city councils. Elected representatives serving in these governments impact a number of local issues, from taxes and emergency services to parks and trails.
In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law allowing ranked choice voting to be used in certain local elections in Virginia, including city council elections and county board of supervisors elections. The law was passed with bipartisan support, and gives Virginia’s localities the flexibility to use ranked choice voting in the way that fits their priorities.
In our current system, elections with many candidates, such as primaries, often result in a winner with only 20-30% of the vote. This means that 70-80% of voters voted for someone other than the candidate that won. Using ranked choice voting for local elections allows voters to more fully express their preferences and ensures majority winners. Since voters are able to rank their choices on the ballot, candidates who build coalitions are rewarded, resulting in a more representative government.
In Arlington County, the Democratic Party used ranked choice voting for its primary for the County Board of Supervisors in 2023, making it the first locality in Virginia to implement this electoral reform. The result was immediately beneficial to voters. Through the use of ranked choice voting, 84% of voters cast a ballot for a winning candidate – up from 45% in the last comparable two-candidate primary.
But every locality in Virginia is different. For example, the 2020 Census ranked Prince William County as the tenth-most racially diverse county in the nation, and it is the most diverse county in Virginia. Ranked choice voting has a proven track record of being beneficial to people of color and women seeking public office and offers a path toward more representative governing bodies.
So while ranked choice voting isn’t necessarily solving the same problems in Arlington as it would in Prince William County, it is creating an electoral system that gives all voters more substantive options and rewards candidates with broad appeal.
Through the Virginia law passed in 2020, Prince William County and other localities have the opportunity to use ranked choice voting in its local primary elections, and there appears to be momentum with at least one of the locality’s elected officials.
Supervisor Kenny Boddye said in a recent webinar, “You have some of the most diverse localities and diverse communities in the country in Prince William County…and a lot of the diversity isn’t reflected in our winner-take-all, you vote for one person system, which is an issue.”
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