Arlington Requests Feedback On Use Of Ranked Choice Voting In Primary

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington is using ranked choice voting for the first time in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for two seats opening on the Arlington County Board.

Ranked choice voting is a voting method in which voters rank candidates in order of preference —in the Arlington County Board primary election, voters are asked to rank the candidates by first choice, second choice and third choice.

For voters who participate in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary election, the Arlington County Board is requesting community feedback on the use of ranked choice voting, or RCV.

Voters are invited to take three to five minutes to fill out a feedback form about their ranked choice voting experience. The feedback form will close on July 5.

The feedback collected from the survey will be presented to the Arlington County Board at its July meeting to inform board members on resident and voter experiences with ranked choice voting in Arlington. The board will also consider whether to extend the use of ranked choice voting to the upcoming general election in November.

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly granted localities the ability to implement ranked choice voting in elections of members of a county board or a city council. The Arlington County Board adopted the use of ranked choice voting in the Democratic primary for county board as a pilot.

READ ALSO: Arlington County Board Democratic Primary: Candidates Vie For 2 Seats

Prior to Tuesday’s Democratic primary for county board, Arlington’s election office put out materials and held seminars on how ranked choice voting works. On election day, volunteers at voting precincts across the county were trained to help voters who may not be familiar with how ranked choice voting works.

In the county board section of the primary ballot, it clearly explains to voters to mark their first choice under the column labeled “1,” followed by the second and third choices in the county board primary in the next two columns.

While ranked choice voting is relatively easy to understand, it's the counting of the votes that many voters find confusing.

In the Arlington County Board primary election, first-choice votes are counted, and the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots that ranked the eliminated candidate first are reassigned to the voter’s second choice. The process is repeated, narrowing down the field one by one until there’s a winner.

With the race involving two winners, if a candidate reaches this winning threshold before anyone else, a fraction of the ballot that ranked the winning candidate first is passed onto the voter’s second or third choices. Winners in the Democratic primary for county board will need to receive more than 33 percent of the vote.

The Arlington County Board is encouraging residents to use the feedback form. But the county is also welcoming written and verbal comments on ranked choice voting. Written comments can be submitted to dbarrera@arlingtonva.us, or countyboard@arlingtonva.us. Verbal comments can be relayed by calling 703-228-3130.