| Charlotte Rene Woods | Yahoo! |
Charlottesville’s city council approved a draft ordinance this week that will allow the use of ranked choice voting next year — when primary elections will be held for some council seats.
A push for ranked choice voting stems locally from Charlottesville as its former state delegate, Sally Hudson, carried legislation that former Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law four years ago. Now localities can adopt ranked choice voting for city council and board of supervisor elections.
Democracy thrives when voters have options
Arlington first adopted the method last year, following a change in state law granting local governments permission to do so. Hudson noted that local, state and federal elections in Virginia in recent years have seen crowded candidate pools ahead of primaries and conventions.
“Democracy thrives when voters have options between lots of candidates — but right now, our ballots just are not built to let voters vote for who they really like when a lot of people run,” Hudson said. “Ranked choice voting solves that problem.”