RTD Commentary: No, Arlington hasn't 'abandoned' ranked choice voting
By Joan Porte, Liz White, Bo Harmon, Janice Morris, and Michael Cantwell
In his recent op-ed, “Arlington abandoned ranked choice voting, which is a good thing,” Aug. 22, Trent England said that Arlington “abandoned ranked choice voting” — never mind the fact that a majority of County Board members clearly stated they want to use RCV again in the future, and 70% of Arlingtonians said they supported it in a recent survey.
Mr. England represents a dark-money political group based in Oklahoma, so it’s understandable how he got facts wrong about our elections (the primary was in June, not May, for example). We represent several grassroots organizations that have been on the ground in Arlington, and are happy to provide clarity.
It’s first important to note that when the Arlington board members unanimously passed the RCV pilot program, it was specifically for the June primary. They never indicated it would also be used in November’s general election, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be revisited in the future.
In fact, the opposite appears to be true. When speaking about RCV in July, Board Chair Christian Dorsey said, “I absolutely think it’s important for the County Board to do this again.”
His colleague Matt de Ferranti agreed, saying, “I am fully supportive of moving in this direction.” Another board member, Takis Karantonis, even said he “can’t imagine a different way to do a Democratic primary again after this.” This doesn’t sound like a county ready to “abandon” RCV.
In the end, RCV did what was promised: It reflected the will of as many Arlingtonians as possible. Eighty-four percent of voters cast a ballot for a winning candidate, up from 45% in the last comparable two-candidate primary.
The facts are clear: When voters use RCV, they like it and want to use it again. In the past decade, data indicates that a majority of voters in Alaska, New York, Maine, Minnesota and Utah prefer RCV to single-choice elections.
In Virginia, the state Republican Party used RCV to nominate its 2021 statewide candidates, and expanded on this success with four congressional primaries in 2022 and 2023.
Put simply, Mr. England was wrong about the Arlington County Board’s recent RCV vote, wrong about voter sentiment about RCV and wrong about the future of RCV in Virginia. His facts were, to borrow his own expression, as “clear as mud.”
