Arlington public opinion continues to be divided on the future of ranked-choice voting.
By one measure, that split is nearly right down the middle.
Staff on Tuesday gave County Board members the outlines of online feedback gathered around the first-ever use of ranked-choice voting in the general election for Arlington County Board.
Around 1,100 responders gave the new process an average score of 52 on a 0-to-100 scale. That’s down from an average of 59 when similar feedback was sought after the Democratic Board primary in June 2023.
Among respondents, those who viewed ranked-choice voting positively dropped from 57% in 2023 to 50% in 2024, while those viewing it negatively rose from 29% to 38%.
Staff noted limitations to the data set. The number of respondents in 2024 was less than half the number who gave their opinions in 2023.
That decline in participation was not due to a lack of effort to bring the public into the process.
“We used the same methods of engagement” and even extended the 2024 survey’s open period by 10 days, said David Barrera, who handles policy and outreach for the County Board office.
Among the respondents, battle lines on ranked-choice are hardening. A total of 49% said they would like the process to be used in every election, while 39% said they wanted it in no elections.
Both those percentages were up from the 2023 survey, with the number of undecideds shrinking.
Board members plan to hold a public hearing in late February and then decide whether to continue use of ranked-choice voting in the general-election Board race.
Speaking to the Arlington County Civic Federation in mid-January, Board Chair Takis Karantonis hinted that, despite his personal support for staying with ranked choice, he wasn’t sure that would be the ultimate decision.
At that event, Karantonis suggested it likely that, whatever happens in general-election races, ranked choice would continue to be used in the Democratic primaries selecting that party’s Board nominees.
At the Jan. 28 meeting, there were inklings of where Board members stood, but nothing definitive.
Matt de Ferranti said “there are reasonable concerns” about the switch, but he leans in favor of retaining ranked choice.
That could leave Board members Susan Cunningham and Maureen Coffey as the swing votes.
Each won office in 2023 via a Democratic primary conducted via ranked choice and then a general election held in the traditional winner(s)-take-all format.
At the Jan. 28 meeting, Cunningham said voters had expressed concerns about holding one election by ranked choice and the others by the traditional winner-take-all method.
The General Assembly has only given localities the power to use ranked choice for governing-body elections. It’s not allowed for school boards, constitutional, legislative, or statewide offices, or for federal elections.
Coffey, who was participating remotely, did not speak to the topic.
Spain won just under 58% of the vote in a four-candidate field for County Board last November, meaning the ranked-choice process did not need to be implemented.
How voters cast their second and third choices in the November 2024 ranked-choice election remains under lock and key, unavailable to the public and even to local election officials.
Because of that, the county’s elections director, Gretchen Reinemeyer, said the limited data available didn’t yield much information.
One of the key tenets of ranked-choice proponents is that moving to the process could bring a wider array of candidates into the process. Reinemeyer opted not to venture a view on that.
“Making any conclusions … is far too premature,” she said at the Board meeting.
Arlington was the first jurisdiction in Virginia to conduct a general-election race using ranked-choice voting. Several other localities are planning to follow suit.
