Arlington Board Primary 'Cliffhanger' Awaits Ranked Choice Tabulations

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington voters will likely find out no later than Sunday who will be the Democratic Party’s nominees for the two seats opening on the Arlington County Board, according to county election officials.

Arlington County decided to use ranked choice voting for the first time in this year’s Democratic primary election for county board.

The two winners of the primary will face off against independent Audrey Clement in November, who is already on the general election ballot for county board, and any other candidates who qualify for the ballot.

According to ranked choice voting advocates, other jurisdictions in Virginia will be looking at how well the voting method is received by voters and candidates in Arlington. If the use of ranked choice voting in the Arlington County Board primary election gets positive reviews, other jurisdictions may decide to approve their own ranked choice voting pilot program.

On Tuesday night, the Arlington Office of Voter Registration & Elections produced results showing how many first choice votes each of the six candidates for county board received. On their ballots, as part of the ranked choice voting method, voters got to rank their top three candidates.

Those election night results showed that Susan Cunningham received 25 percent of the first choice votes of the more than 27,000 ballots that were cast in the county board primary. Natalie Roy came in second with 24 percent of the first choice votes, followed by Maureen Coffey with 22 percent, JD Spain with 20 percent, Tony Weaver with 5 percent and Jonathan Dromgoole with 4 percent.

Following Tuesday's count of the first choice votes, the next round of the ranked choice voting tabulation process will begin Friday afternoon at the earliest, according to the Arlington elections office. For voters who requested a mail-in ballot, it must be postmarked by June 20 and received by the Arlington elections office before noon on Friday.

READ ALSO: Cunningham, Roy, Coffey Lead In 1st Choice Votes In Arlington Primary

Cunningham, who will be heading into Friday's ranked choice voting tabulation process with the lead, issued a statement to supporters Tuesday night expressing gratitude for being the first choice of the largest percentage of Arlington primary voters.

"We are all eager to see the final outcome as the ranked choice tabulations begin on Friday," Cunningham said. "As votes are redistributed, the leaderboard order may shift around a few times. Any combination of the top four could emerge as the two winners. I would be honored to be among them and serve our community on our County Board."

Roy, who won the second-most first choice votes, applauded the work of the Arlington elections office and poll workers in conducting Tuesday's primary election.

"And thank you to the thousands of Arlington voters who have made their voices heard in the past month. While results remain uncertain, I am incredibly proud of the campaign we’ve run over the past six months through this difficult and complex election," Roy said in a statement Wednesday. "This is the first time I have ever run for public office, and I am grateful to the thousands of voters and supporters I’ve met and spoken with about my vision for Arlington."

On Tuesday night, Coffey said she was proud of the election campaign that she and her team ran for county board.

"Tonight is a cliffhanger, but I still support RCV and look forward to how the process plays out!" Coffey said. "What an incredible opportunity. Thank you to my team, my supporters, and truly all of Arlington. Y'all are incredible."

Among the county precincts, Cunningham and Roy performed extremely well in the northern parts of the county, while Coffey dominated the Metro corridors of Arlington. Spain won many precincts in the southern part of the county, but he did not win by the margins he needed to push him into the top three after the first choice votes were counted.

"Our team is grateful for the strong community support that our campaign received over the past six months, and we're proud of the race we ran," Spain's campaign said in a statement. "JD performed very well in many of Arlington's most diverse precincts, and we're excited to see the final results come in."

Regardless of the outcome of the primary election, "our team is excited to help elect progressive Democrats in November," his campaign said.

Liz White, executive director of UpVote Virginia, a nonpartisan group that focuses on election issues such as ranked choice voting and campaign finance reform, noted that the Arlington registrar's office said it received no complaints about ranked choice voting on Tuesday.

On a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, White also emphasized that the county board primary race is still wide open. Four out of the six candidates — Cunningham, Roy, Coffey, or Spain — could secure a win once subsequent rounds are tabulated.

Depending on the second and third rankings of Weaver and Dromgoole’s voters, it is plausible that any of the top four candidates could get to the 33.3 percent vote threshold to be declared a winner, she said.

White said election officials in jurisdictions across Virginia, including in Loudoun County and the cities of Fredericksburg and Charlottesville, have said they will be watching Arlington's use of ranked choice voting to see how it goes.

"Their registrar and election officials want to see all these logistical questions answered and watch a ranked choice voting election happen from beginning to end to answer some procedural questions," she said. "But they also just want to see how Arlington voters feel about it and see if it is something that their voters would want and see if it is something that would be right for their community."

Gretchen Reinemeyer, general registrar and director of elections for Arlington County, and her team have had the eyes of the state on them, according to White.

"I can't say enough nice things about that office and the work that they have done," she said. "They were a good choice to be the pioneers in Virginia to do this."

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