Arlington County, Virginia is using proportional ranked choice voting (RCV) in its Democratic primary election for County Board this coming Tuesday, June 20. Voters will nominate candidates for two open seats from a six-candidate field; in this Democratic-dominated county of approximately 235,000, the nominees will be heavily favored to win election over independent Audrey Clement this fall. 

Arlington’s County Board members wield significant influence, since the county does not have an elected executive. The Board consists of five members, with the position of Chair rotating annually among them. 

In the six-way primary, two candidates seem to be the Democratic Party favorites: J.D. Spain, a former Marine and president of the Arlington NAACP, and Mauren Coffey, an analyst at the Center for American Progress. Also in the running are LGBTQ+ activist and political strategist Jonathan Dromgoole, entrepreneur and former Arlington Rotary club president Tony Weaver, consultant and nonprofit director Susan Cunningham, and realtor Natalie Roy. Affordable and equitable housing policy – particularly regarding the development of small multi-unit housing like duplexes and townhouses, known as the “missing middle” – has been a major focus of debate between the candidates. 

Benefits of proportional RCV

Proportional RCV is a multi-winner version of RCV, and is a great way to select nominees that fully represent the primary electorate. In Arlington, voters will rank up to three candidates in order of preference. For a candidate to secure a place on the general election ballot, they need 33.3% of votes – the point at which mathematically, no two other candidates can surpass their vote share. 

If no two candidates win 33.3% of voters’ first-choice support, backup choices come into play. If your favorite candidate performed poorly or you already helped your first choice surpass 33.3%, your vote can help your second choice reach the threshold (and so on until two candidates are nominated). As a result, a vast majority of voters (at least 66.6%) will help nominate a candidate they support, and the nominees will be reflective of voters’ preferences. In the last competitive 2-seat county board primary in 2015, the top two winners combined earned only 45% of the vote.

In fact, in past U.S. elections that have used proportional RCV, over 90% of voters see one of their top three choices win a seat – showing that RCV better reflects the will of the voters even if their favorite candidate does not win. Compare this to other election methods, where only 30 or 40% of voters may see their votes elect a winner. 

How it’s going in Arlington

We know that voters in other RCV jurisdictions find RCV easy to use, and key players in Arlington are catching on quickly. Arlington elections Director Gretchen Reinemeyer advised voters to utilize all three of their rankings. 

Choose-one elections are zero sum, meaning a vote for any candidate is essentially a vote against all the others. In contrast, with RCV, candidates can pick up support from their opponents in later rounds. Jonathan Dromgoole said he will also be ranking Coffey and Spain. A mailer from the JD Spain campaign reminds voters:  “Have a friend who already has a 1st choice candidate? Invite them to vote for JD (2nd).”  Organizations have also issued ranked endorsements of candidates, including influential nonprofit group Greater Greater Washington. 

When candidates can benefit from being a backup choice of their opponents’ supporters, they have reason to find consensus. For example, all six candidates found common ground on whether  the county should buy some flood-prone homes (yes) and bring school resource officers back to public schools (no). 

Results timeline

Notably, RCV results in Arlington may not be available until Friday, June 23 or the week of June 26. Virginia state law allows absentee or military ballots received by noon on the Friday after election day; Virginia election officials have chosen not to run any RCV count until all these ballots have been received and processed. Only first-choice results will be available before the RCV count. 

Nationally, the best practice is to report preliminary RCV results as soon as possible. Cities in Utah, California, and Minnesota report preliminary RCV results within 24 hours of polls closing. Arlington could do this too, with the caveat that results are preliminary and subject to change. Of course, this is the same caveat we see in any competitive single-choice election – we need to count every vote, and that could take time given the increase in late-arriving and late-counted mail ballots across the country over the last several years. 

Of course, in Arlington and elsewhere, the actual tabulation of RCV results takes just seconds once ballots have been received and processed. 

RCV in Virginia

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly allowed localities to adopt RCV for city council and county board elections. Though Arlington is the first jurisdiction to take up this offer and use RCV for a public election, the Commonwealth is no stranger to RCV. The Arlington County Democratic Committee and the Republican Party of Virginia have both used RCV before, the latter to nominate statewide and congressional candidates. Other Old Dominion jurisdictions look poised to try RCV in the future as well. 

Arlington County’s pioneering use of proportional RCV is a big step forward for positive and fair elections. Arlington joins several other localities using proportional RCV, and dozens of US cities, counties, and states using a ranked ballot.