Imagine that one conservative and two fairly liberal candidates are running in a place that tends to be liberal on the issues. Because those liberals might split the vote, that area could end up with conservative representation. Sally Hudson chairs the board of a non-profit called Ranked Choice Virginia.
“It ensures that you do get those candidates who bring people together, who build coalitions and unite the electorate," she says. "You can worry sometimes about candidates splitting the vote and electing candidates who get a relatively small share of support – maybe 20%-30% -- but don’t actually have backing from the breadth of the community.”
But how does it actually work?
“In a ranked choice election, you don’t just vote for a candidate. You get to rank the candidates in the order that you like them – so your first choice, your second choice, your third choice, using those ranked ballots to conduct an instant runoff that narrows the field down to the top candidates who actually have support from the most people," Hudson explains.
The first locality in Virginia to try this approach was Arlington County.
“They just had an exit poll on the tail-end of their June primary, and the vast majority of voters said that they understood the ranked choice ballot and would like to continue using it.”
She notes about fifty cities nationwide and two states – Maine and Alaska – also used ranked choice voting, and the option seems to spread from the grassroots up.
“Communities that have been using this locally have often used that as a launch pad to build a broader ranked choice. Maine was the first state to take ranked choice statewide back in 2018, but it started with the election of Portland’s mayor by ranked choice back in 2011.”
Charlottesville city council is expected to vote tonight on whether to adopt ranked choice voting for its elections in 2025.
