Voters react to ranked choice voting in Arlington County

ARLINGTON, Va. — On Tuesday, voters in Arlington County cast their ballot a bit differently.

For the first time, ranked choice voting was used for the 2023 Democratic Primary Election for the office of County Board, which had two seats up for grabs. The offices for State Senate, House of Delegates, Commonwealth's Attorney, and Sheriff did not use ranked choice voting.  

Ranked choice voting is also known as instant runoff voting. Voters rank several candidates on the ballot from first to last. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the first-place votes, that candidates wins. If no candidate receives 50%, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The ballots on which they were named are then distributed to the candidates listed in second place. If no candidate has a majority after that step, the process repeats until one candidate wins.

A spokesperson for FairVote added that Arlington's current election is slightly different than most because voters are electing two candidates instead of one. Instead of reaching 50%, winning candidates will only need more than 33.3% of the vote to be elected.

"I think we've only had a couple of people so far who needed our assistance," said Brad Harmon, the chief election officer in Rosslyn. 

"We've probably had more people mess up the non ranked choice part of the ballot than the ranked choice part," said Harmon.

WUSA9 also checked out the polling site in Glencarlyn.

"As soon as we make sure the voter is qualified to vote at this particular precinct we take the time to show them what the ballot looks like. It's two sided. One side is regular one side is ranked choice, and we do try to explain it," said Janet Boyd, the chief election officer in Glencarlyn.

WUSA9 also caught up with several people at polling sites in Rosslyn, Lyon Park and Glencarlyn.

"It was super easy I looked over it before I got here went in and it's 1, 2, 3," said Brad Prindle who was casting his vote in Lyon Park.

"I liked having the option to vote for more than one candidate especially in a primary where some of the platforms are similar," shared Kerry Baumann.

But others, weren't a big fan of the new voting format.

"It's very straightforward when you can just vote for one candidate or if there's more than one you have the option to vote for more than two and then the weighting of each candidate, it's just very complicated," said Jason Poland in Glencarlyn.

"I have mixed feelings on it," said Roy Austin.

"I had of course my favorite candidate who I knew something about, but I didn't know very much about the other candidates. So, it was kind of okay I know this person I'm not so sure about this one so it made it difficult to actually have a good second and third choice," he said.

Arlington County is now seeking input from voters about how ranked choice voting went.

To chime in, fill out this online feedback form, which closes on July 5. 

Findings will be presented to the County Board at its July 2023 meeting, 

The Board will then consider whether or not to use RCV in the November 2023 General Election.