Ranked-choice voting has gained popularity in recent years. Although, it's not popular at the Executive Mansion.
Glenn Youngkin got the nomination to run as the Republican candidate for governor in a ranked-choice vote at a party convention. But now, he's vetoing a bill that would have clarified how the process is supposed to work in local elections. Liz White at the advocacy organization UpVote says the original version of the bill he vetoed would have expanded the kind of local offices that could be decided using a ranked-choice election. But by the time it got to his desk, she says, it was just some language clarifying how votes are tabulated and reported to the public.
"It really was just kind of a technical adjustment bill," White says. "And especially a governor who was nominated for this office using ranked-choice voting to veto the bill saying that his concerns were about voter confusion really was surprising."
Former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is now with the Election Transparency Initiative, which opposes ranked-choice voting.
"We viewed the bill as seeking to expand and ingratiate ranked-choice voting further into Virginia, and we're happy to see the governor's veto," Cuccinelli. "Of course, he was nominated using ranked-choice voting, which is interesting. It makes him, in my view, a much more credible person to veto a bill like this."
Supporters of ranked-choice voting say they'll be back at it next year in an effort to make sure this kind of voting is available to local governments for a variety of elections.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
