RCV Has Made Its Way to Arlington, VA!

Arlington, Virginia’s county board has unanimously voted to adopt a ranked choice voting (RCV) pilot program to be implemented in their upcoming County Board primary election. This was aided by efforts from many organizations including UpVote VA, FairVote Virginia, FairVote Action, the League of Women Voters, RepresentUs, Veterans for Political Innovation, and the Voters First Project.

“Ranked Choice Voting has been shown to make the electoral process more representative and participatory in communities across the county, as well as resulting in candidates who build consensus and a more diverse slate of elected officials,” said Board Chair Katie Cristol.

In 2020, Virginia passed a law granting municipalities the option to adopt RCV in their elections. RCV already has a history of success in Virginia, including in party primaries. The Virginia GOP has used RCV in many capacities, including in their nomination of the current governor Glenn Youngkin. 11th District GOP Chairman Steve Knotts says, “I think [RCV is] a really good way of, A, having consensus and getting past that 50% mark, and B, just making it more of a party that’s unified behind a candidate because everyone had a voice in that candidate.”

The Arlington Democrats have also used RCV for inner-party processes, such as endorsing school board candidates. “The Arlington Democrats have been using Ranked Choice Voting for our internal endorsement and nomination processes for several years, seeing a strong value in identifying the candidate that draws the broadest support from Democratic voters,” said Maggie Davis, deputy chairperson of the Arlington County Democrats. 

Several Virginia universities – like William and Mary, James Madison University, Washington and Lee University, and University of Virginia – use RCV in their elections. 

Clearly, RCV has support from people all over Virginia and across the political spectrum because it guarantees wide support for a candidate. Both former Republican Governor George Allen and Democratic Representative Don Beyer praised RCV in UpVote VA’s launch video. 

As the year comes to an end, and Arlington underscores RCV’s cross-partisan popularity, join the 62 jurisdictions all over the country in bringing RCV to your city.