GET INVOLVED LOCALLY

City of Charlottesville

Charlottesville is often among the first localities in Virginia to try new ways of improving their government. Ranked choice voting (RCV) would be a great fit for this civic-minded community. That’s why the City Council has passed an ordinance to use RCV for the city council primaries in June 2025!

Ranked choice voting is a better way to run local elections. Thank your City Council members for supporting RCV.

It’s crucial now that we help educate voters in all Charlottesville communities about RCV so no one gets left behind by this change. Ranked Choice Virginia is leading the way on these local efforts - check out their upcoming events and opportunities to get engaged!

RCV VOTER INFORMATION

Confused? Don’t worry - we’re here to help!

Watch this short video on how RCV works in multi-winner elections.

Watch our webinar with FairVote’s Deb Otis.

See the slides from that webinar.

Try out a mock election for two winners.

Request a speaker for your group.

Since Charlottesville elects two or three members of City Council at a time, here’s how RCV would work. Instead of just voting for the two or three candidates you like, you get to “rank” your favorite candidates in order of preference: first, second, third, etc. Because multiple candidates would be elected at a time, the tabulation works a little differently.

If a candidate exceeds the votes they need to win, their excess votes are proportionally redistributed to voters’ second choice candidate. 

If no candidate reaches the number of votes needed to win, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to those voters’ second choice candidates.

LOCALITY OVERVIEW

GOVERNING BODY: City Council

NUMBER OF MEMBERS: 5

The City of Charlottesville operates under a Council-Manager form of government. Charlottesville voters elect a five member Council to serve at large as the City’s legislative and governing body. The members serve four year terms, and they select one Councilor to serve as Mayor and one as Vice Mayor for two years. Municipal elections are held in November in odd-numbered years. The terms of Council members are staggered so that three are elected in one year and two are elected two years later. If a vacancy occurs, Council elects a new member to serve out the unexpired term.

Meet City Council