Good news from Ranked Choice Virginia; every jurisdiction should do this, ASAP!
Charlottesville City Council Approves Ranked-Choice Voting for 2025
First RCV Primary for City Council will be next June
Charlottesville, VA — On September 3, Charlottesville City Council approved an ordinance that would authorize parties to use ranked-choice voting in next year’s June Council primaries. The final vote was 4-1 with Mayor Wade and Councilors Oschrin, Payne, and Pinkston voting in favor and Councilor Snook opposed.
Charlottesville will now become the second locality in Virginia to use ranked-choice voting for local elections, following Arlington’s first use in 2023.
The City Registrar Taylor Yowell recommended passage in a memo to Council:
“Ranked choice voting has been successfully adopted in various localities and states across the nation and has been shown by research to support more diverse candidate pools and improved civility in campaigns and elections.“
Former Charlottesville delegate Sally Hudson, who authored Virginia’s ranked-choice voting statute in 2020, praised the milestone:
“This step has been years in the making, and Charlottesville can be proud we’re doing our part to make democracy better for the long haul.“
The measure was endorsed by local chapters of Ranked Choice Virginia, the League of Women Voters, Veterans for All Voters, and Indivisible.
Local news coverage of last night’s meeting can be found through CBS19 and NBC29.
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Ranked Choice Virginia is a non-partisan, non-profit venture based in Charlottesville, VA dedicated to expanding the use of ranked-choice voting in Virginia elections.
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