Two nonprofits are preparing for a survey of Arlington voters’ experiences with ranked-choice voting shortly after polls close in November.
The goal is to “have the survey in the field immediately after the election, so opinions are fresh,” said Sally Hudson, executive director of Ranked Choice Virginia.
Her organization will coordinate with FairVote to collect data and conduct surveys. The two groups received one county grant worth $25,000 to conduct the work.
Ranked Choice Virginia will craft the survey questions and contract with a research firm to contact voters. Hudson, a former General Assembly member, said voters will be contacted via text and telephone, with a key focus on reaching underserved and disengaged voters.
The county government awarded a separate $35,000 grant to the local nonprofit Challenging Racism to conduct in-person research and develop partnerships to spread information about ranked-choice voting in advance of the election.
In Arlington, only the County Board race will be conducted using the ranked-choice format this year. All other elections will be held via the winner-take-all format.
Five candidates are vying for the lone County Board seat on the ballot. Voters will have the ability to rank up to three candidates in order of preference.
Ranked-choice voting remains a controversial topic in Arlington. A county-sponsored online survey conducted in late 2024 and released in January 2025 saw supporters of the change slightly outnumbering opponents.
Around 1,100 responders gave the new process an average score of 52 on a 0-to-100 scale. That represented a decline from an average of 59 when similar feedback was sought after the Democratic Board primary in June 2023 — the first time ranked-choice voting was used in a government-run election in Virginia.
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%.
Current state law only permits Virginia jurisdictions to use the ranked-choice option for boards of supervisors and city councils. Federal, statewide, legislative, constitutional and school board races must use the winner-take-all format.
Besides Arlington, in Virginia, only Charlottesville has formally moved to use ranked-choice voting for its governing body. Other localities are in various stages of considering a switch.
Falls Church may consider changing its format in advance of 2027 City Council elections. Fairfax County officials have given no indication they are mulling a format change.
Clerk, sheriff lead pack in ticket-sales effort: In other news, Arlington County’s clerk of the Circuit Court and sheriff have taken the lead in a competition selling tickets to upcoming Arlington County Democratic Committee events.
The team of Paul Ferguson and Jose Quiroz was leading in the friendly competition to sell the party’s Gold Card, which provides access to special Democratic events up to Election Day.
The party set a goal of 175 Gold Cards to sell. “We are 76% there,” Commissioner of Revenue Kim Klingler said at the party’s Sept. 3 monthly meeting.
Klingler has joined with Treasurer Carla de la Pava as a selling team. Others include County Board member Susan Cunningham and School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton; Sen. Barbara Favola and Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti; and County Board member Julius “J.D.” Spain Sr. and Del. Adele McClure.
County Board Chair Takis Karantonis and School Board candidate Monique “Moe” Bryant each are competing solo in the ticket-selling competition.
Funds raised are being used to support the Democratic Joint Campaign, which supports candidates for local office.
“It takes what? Money, money, money,” said Klingler, who is serving on the Joint Campaign for 2025.
Democrats honor chili-cookoff winners: The Arlington County Democratic Committee also saluted winners of the party’s 2025 Labor Day Chili Cookoff.
A total of 17 entries competed for a variety of titles in the Sept. 1 competition, which was organized by Jessie Ojeda, parliamentarian for the local party.
Tony Weaver won the Judges’ Choice Award, with Yint Hmu as the People’s Choice winner and County Board Chair Takis Karantonis as the Veggie Choice.
The annual Labor Day event serves as the committee’s unofficial start to the general-election season.
