Virginia elections show value of ranked choice voting
Virginia held its primary elections on Tuesday, including a six-candidate race for lieutenant governor and the first ever ranked choice voting (RCV) race for Charlottesville City Council. The elections showed not only the flaws in our current system, but also how RCV can make elections work better for voters.
Virginia lieutenant governor’s race shows a split field and lack of consensus
The crowded race for lieutenant governor has an apparent winner, with just 27.4% of the vote. The second- and third-place finishers are extremely close behind – with 26.7% and 26.3%, respectively. Fewer than 4,000 votes separate the winner from the runner-up. The Democratic nominee will enter the general election without a majority of their party united behind them.
| Candidate | Number of votes | Share of the vote |
|---|---|---|
| Ghazala Hashmi | 131,865 | 27.39% |
| Levar Stoney | 128,262 | 26.64% |
| Aaron Rouse | 126,802 | 26.34% |
| Babur Lateef | 40,447 | 8.40% |
| Alexander Bastani | 27,386 | 5.69% |
| Victor Salgado | 26,682 | 5.54% |
In addition to the frontrunners, this election had three candidates who received a total of 19.63% of the vote. Because the primary used single-choice voting, these voters were unable to express their preference between the strongest candidates – which almost certainly would’ve proved decisive.
With ranked choice voting, voters could rank their favorite candidates first, while still expressing a preference between other candidates. RCV would address concerns about vote-splitting among ideologically similar candidates, give voters greater say, deliver a majority winner, and unite the party behind its nominee.
Charlottesville shows how ranked choice voting improves party primaries
Yesterday, Charlottesville, VA used the multi-winner, proportional form of RCV for the first time in its City Council primary. With RCV, Charlottesville’s election didn’t have the same issues as Virginia’s statewide elections.
In the Democratic City Council primary, voters chose two nominees from a field of three candidates. (With no Republicans or independents running, the general election is currently uncontested.)
Mayor Juandiego Wade and Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston, who ran a joint campaign, were challenged by Jen Fleisher, a public health professional. Fleisher won one of the nominations with 51% of first choices, while the two incumbent officeholders collectively received 49% of first choices. Wade won the second nomination with 36% of first choices.
The results illustrate how proportional ranked choice voting can produce diverse representation that reflects different communities within a city. Fleisher and Wade live in different neighborhoods and bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives to their work. Additionally, in a primary where roughly half of voters favored a challenger and half favored an incumbent, both groups were able to nominate a candidate of their choice.
As Ranked Choice Virginia Executive Director Sally Hudson noted:
Voters got to express their honest preferences about all the candidates without playing games with their vote. Under Charlottesville’s old block voting system, voters had to worry about hurting their favorite candidate by supporting a second candidate. That headache is gone with ranked choice ballots.
Though proportional RCV and single-winner RCV offer different strengths, both ensure the widest swath of the population is represented in election outcomes. They give voters greater choice, while addressing fears of vote-splitting or “wasting” your vote.
For more information on ranked choice voting in Charlottesville, visit Ranked Choice Virginia.
Virginia’s successful history with ranked choice voting
Split fields and non-majority winners are no stranger to Virginia voters. For example, just last year, Virginia’s 10th Congressional District advanced a Democratic nominee with only 30% of the vote.
In order to avoid a divisive primary and a divided party in 2021, Virginia Republicans used ranked choice voting to nominate Governor Glenn Youngkin and other statewide candidates. Those nominees went on to sweep all three statewide elections that November. Republican parties in three congressional districts followed suit by using RCV in 2022; a voter survey comparing one district that used RCV and one that didn’t found the RCV district had a more positive campaign, nominated a candidate with a higher favorability rating, and had high voter satisfaction. 56% of Republican primary voters preferred RCV to single-choice voting.
Virginia law gives cities and counties the freedom to adopt ranked choice voting, and yesterday’s elections add to the growing body of evidence that the reform is good for Virginia voters. For more information on ranked choice voting in the Old Dominion State, visit UpVote Virginia.