Washington, DC primary leaves 77% of voters unheard. Ranked choice voting would help.
On Tuesday, Washington, DC held primaries for City Council. The most competitive race was in Ward 7, where a whopping 10 candidates ran for the Democratic nomination.
As of Wednesday morning, the race remains too close to call, but one thing is clear: Three out of four voters picked someone other than the winner. If DC used ranked choice voting (RCV), more voters could have been heard in the result. Thankfully, voters in Washington, DC may have the opportunity to adopt RCV this November. Initiative 83 would bring RCV to DC’s elections, and let independents vote in the primary of their choice.
The Ward 7 race attracted so many candidates because incumbent Councilor Vincent Gray chose not to seek reelection. It’s great to see this much enthusiasm for a local race – but the city’s broken, single-choice voting method can’t handle such large fields. A candidate can win even if a majority of their constituents vote against them.
| Candidate | Number of votes | Share of votes |
| Wendell Felder | 2,211 | 23% |
| Ebony Payne | 1,938 | 20.1% |
| Eboni-Rose Thompson | 1,869 | 19.4% |
| Veda Rasheed | 979 | 10.2% |
| Kelvin Brown | 966 | 10% |
| Nate Fleming | 842 | 8.7% |
| Roscoe Grant | 236 | 2.5% |
| Denise Reed | 211 | 2.2% |
| Villareal Johnson | 208 | 2.2% |
| Ebbon Allen | 163 | 1.7% |
Right now, Wendell Felder leads with just 23% of the vote, followed by Ebony Payne with 20.1% and Eboni-Rose Thompson with 19.4%. Most voters aren’t represented in this result. In single-choice elections, voters who don’t pick one of the top-two candidates don’t get to participate in the final decision between competitive candidates. In this race, that’s 57% of voters. Ranked choice voting would change the dynamic, allowing those voters to consolidate around a more viable backup choice. A winner would emerge with a clear majority of voters behind them.
City Council races are especially important in Washington, DC; the City Council is its governing body, acting like a state legislature and city government rolled into one. Given the Council’s importance, it’s crucial that the body reflects as much of the electorate as possible.
The Washington Post has endorsed RCV as a way to improve Washington, DC elections, citing the reform’s success in other nearby cities:
Takoma Park, Md., has used ranked-choice voting since 2007. Arlington experimented with it in a June 20 primary for the county board of supervisors. The ballot was easy to understand, and the election went well.
Organizers at Make All Votes Count DC are in the final weeks of gathering signatures to put Initiative 83 on the ballot. You can sign up to help them here!