This past week, Arlington County in Virginia held a primary election for County Board using ranked choice voting. As a current resident, that meant I had the fantastic opportunity to use ranked voting to cast my ballot.
The primary election had five candidates vying for one nomination to the County Board. And ranked choice voting was perfect for this situation.
The process of voting itself was very straightforward. The names of the five candidates were listed, and the voter needed to mark their first choice, second choice, and third choice. The ballot instructions were clear and straightforward, and the claims made by reform opponents that ranked voting is confusing are simply nonsense.
But more importantly, the ranked choice system made casting my vote much simpler than using the traditional method. This is because I didn’t need to game out likely outcomes to figure out how to make best use of my vote. Of the candidates on the ballot, there were two that I supported, two that I was neutral toward, and one that I did not care for. Under a traditional voting method, I would have been able to select only one candidate. This would have required considering my top choices, and trying to figure out which of those choices had the best chance of actually winning, based on looking at numbers of endorsements and polling. Voting for someone who was not competitive would have been a wasted vote. For a voter who wants their vote to have an impact, the traditional voting method requires complex strategizing. With ranked choice voting, I could simply read about the candidates positions and then rank whoever I preferred, knowing that my policy preferences would be properly reflected by the voting mechanism.
Similarly, the ranked choice voting mechanism makes gaming and strategizing unnecessary for the candidates as well. Under the traditional method, two candidates with similar policy positions can spoil an election. If the two most popular candidates appeal to similar voters, they can split the vote and leave a result where both of them lose to a less-popular candidate. Thus, candidates need to consider strategically dropping out of races before election day, which leaves voters with fewer choices when they actually cast their ballot. With ranked voting, candidates cannot split votes and spoil elections. If two popular candidates have similar policy positions, their voters can rank those candidates as their first and second choices. This allows voters to voice their true preferences over candidates without fear of spoiling the election.
All in all, my experience voting with ranked choice voting was exceptionally positive, and I hope the use of this superior voting system continues to have expanded use in Virginia and the rest of the country.