UpVote Virginia Statement on Arlington County’s Ranked Choice Board Primary Election Results
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2023
Contact: Liz White
804-305-8050
UpVote Virginia Statement on Arlington County’s Ranked Choice Board Primary Election Results
ARLINGTON, VA – Earlier today, the Arlington County Registrar’s Office announced the final results for the County Board Primary, declaring Maureen Coffey and Susan Cunningham as the two winners of Virginia’s first Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) election overseen by the Department of Elections.
UpVote Virginia, a newly-formed democracy reform nonprofit, worked with several nonpartisan grassroots advocacy groups to lobby the Arlington County Board to adopt an RCV pilot program, and an ordinance was passed unanimously in December 2022.
Executive Director Liz White released the below statement in conjunction with the final tabulation:
“Now that the votes have been counted and the winners have been declared, UpVote Virginia is delighted to report that Arlington’s Ranked Choice Voting pilot program was a success – for the election officials who administered it, the champions of good government who fought for it, and – most importantly – the voters who participated in it.
This accomplishment was the result of advocacy and educational outreach from a broad coalition of groups that included the Arlington County Civic Federation, the Arlington NAACP, FairVote Virginia, the League of Women Voters, RepresentUs, UU the Vote, and Veterans for Political Innovation. We would also like to thank former Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol, who was the chief patron of the RCV resolution that made this all possible.
Finally, UpVote Virginia would particularly like to emphasize our appreciation to Arlington Director of Elections Gretchen Reinemeyer and her team who made this process seamless from start to finish.
Looking forward, our organization hopes that Arlington’s example will set the stage for other localities across Virginia to follow their lead.”
Key Takeaways from Arlington’s RCV Election:
Arlington voters understood the new ballot system.
Whether from published news reports, online polls, or anecdotal evidence from our volunteers at polling locations, all indications show that the RCV ballots were easy to understand. The County Registrar’s Office itself said to WJLA News that they "received no complaints about ranked-choice voting Tuesday."
Final results accurately reflect the electorate more than in past elections.
As winners of a multi-winner RCV election, it is clear that both Coffey and Cunningham built broad coalitions of voters. This provides for more representative election results as a whole, since the mathematical threshold for victory was 33.3% in a six-person race. For perspective, the two winners of the 2015 Democratic Arlington Board Primary received 22.5% and 22.1% of the total vote respectively. In short, this pilot program achieved precisely what it set out to do: reflect the will of as many voters as possible across Arlington’s constituencies.
The tabulation process was instantaneous and smooth.
Per a decision from the Virginia Department of Elections, only the results of the first ballot were reported on election night. In the subsequent days, the Arlington Registrar's Office received and processed all ballots – including those from same-day registrants, provisional ballots, dropbox ballots, and absentee or military ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by noon on Friday, June 23. From there, the final tabulation took a few seconds – just as fast as any other voting method.
UpVote Virginia is a registered 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating the voices of Virginia voters through nonpartisan education, advocacy, and grassroots engagement. As a democracy reform collective, UpVote Virginia will focus on multiple issues related to making our elections stronger and more equitable, including its first flagship issue: Ranked Choice Voting. Learn more at UpVoteVA.org.
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