City Council moves a step closer to adopting ranked choice voting

“It makes voting less like gambling and lets people vote their conscience."

On Monday, Charlottesville City Council discussed adopting a ranked-choice voting (RCV) system for local elections, as opposed to traditional single-choice voting, which would make us only the second locality in the state to do so. Last month, Democrats in Arlington, Virginia held their second RCV primary election after adopting the practice last year.

As Sally Hudson, a former Virginia House Delegate who introduced a bill allowing RCV in local elections in 2020, pointed out last night, RCV started more than 20 years ago in Charlottesville when UVA students adopted it for their student council elections, and in 2009 and 2011 the Democratic party of Charlottesville held so-called Firehouse primaries to select candidates.

After Eden Ratliff, Deputy City Manager Manager for Administration, and Taylor Yowell, General Registrar and Director of Elections, gave a …