Development of new legislation concluded this past Saturday, with everything that was passed now going to the Governor’s desk. We expect to see much more of this legislation signed than in the recent past, when the previous Governor vetoed a tremendous number of bills. Many of the current bills were developed with bipartisan support, although of course some reflect political party differences.
One relatively modest bill moving forward (H.B.630) enables towns to decide to elect their officials using ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting is being increasingly used across the country to help ensure that the majority of the voting population supports the winning candidate. Currently it is allowed in Virginia cities and counties, and this new bill would extend its possible use to towns (such as Blacksburg and Christiansburg). It also would make this option permanent for our cities and counties.
The first major use of ranked choice voting in Virginia was when the Republican party used it in the 2021 primary election for governor. It resulted in the selection of Glenn Youngkin. In contrast, the Democrats used a traditional approach, which resulted in negative campaigning which hurt its candidate in the general election. Naturally, I had assumed that as the Republican party had decided to use this approach in the past, with great success, it would support extending opportunity for ranked choice voting going forward. Yet Republicans unanimously voted against H.B.630!
Ranked choice voting prevents someone with a strong opinion supported by only a dedicated minority from winning an election because the other candidates split the majority votes. For example, let’s say one candidate really wanted a lacrosse field constructed in the town park, and managed to get 36% of the population to agree. Another candidate had 30% of the vote for a baseball field, and the other candidate had 34% support for basketball courts. It is probably safe to assume that those wanting a baseball field would want basketball courts as a second choice, and vice versus. If this is true, ranked choice voting – done by eliminating the lowest vote choice (in this case baseball) and then using the second choice of those voters, might result in a final election tally of something like 38% for lacrosse and 62% for basketball. The community would get what the majority wants – basketball – even though a minority initially had the most votes (for lacrosse).
When there is a larger field of candidates, ranked choice voting also helps in preventing candidates from going negative. When a candidate attacks another candidate, it typically lowers everyone’s opinion about both candidates. To stay as a second or third choice – vital in ranked choice voting – candidates need to campaign on why they are the best choice rather than why their opponents are a bad choice. This worked well in the past Republican primary election for governor, when Youngkin emerged from the Republican primary untarnished. Given this history of Republicans selecting ranked choice voting as the best way to select its candidates, it is difficult to understand their current partisan opposition to allow (not require!) ranked choice voting in towns. Why would anyone want to prevent the candidate that the majority of the population wants from prevailing, even if personally holding a different point of view? Wouldn’t it be better to try to persuade the community to your beliefs, rather than to try to game the system to elect a candidate with little overall support. If ranked voting worked so well for the Republicans in the past, why are they opposing it now?
