The Arlington County Board has officially approved a trial run of ranked choice voting in a local primary election next year, becoming the first locality in Virginia to adopt the voting method.

The new election system will be in place for the primary elections for local county board seats in June. It will not yet apply to any other election contests, though county officials have also considered plans for potentially implementing it again in next year’s general election in November.

The Board approved the measure unanimously on Saturday, following a public hearing in November where members indicated that they would endorse the plan.

“Ranked Choice Voting has been shown to make the electoral process more representative and participatory in communities across the county, as well as resulting in candidates who build consensus and a more diverse slate of elected officials,” said Board Chair Katie Cristol, who has led the county’s consideration of the elections method, in November. “I’m glad that Arlington voters have a chance to utilize this program next year.”

In ranked choice voting, voters can select candidates on their ballot in order of preference, indicating who is their first choice, second choice, third choice, etc. If a candidate wins more than half of the first choice votes, they win the election, just as they would in plurality voting.

But if no one receives the majority of the vote, the person with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the votes of their supporters are re-tallied according to their second preference. The process — essentially, a series of immediate runoff elections — keeps going until one candidate emerges with more than fifty percent of the vote. If voters are electing multiple people from the same pool of candidates, the percent of the vote needed to win is adjusted to reflect the number of seats open.

Voters can also choose not to select additional candidate preferences beyond their first choice.

Advocates say ranked choice voting ultimately results in a more accurate representation of the electorate’s perspectives than in traditional plurality voting, particularly in crowded races, where one candidate might edge out another by a slim margin under traditional voting practices. They also argue that the method incentivizes more positive campaigning, with candidates focused on their message and vision instead of undermining their opponent — whose supporters might list them as a second choice.

Cristol, during the county board’s public hearing on the subject in November, also noted that some early research suggests that ranked choice voting can help uplift candidates of color and voters of color. Proponents argue that the method can give voice to underrepresented groups of people, whose second or third vote choices could help swing a second or third tally of the vote.

Arlington’s county board primaries in June are expected to be busy — and, in heavily Democratic Arlington, are likely to determine the candidates who will eventually win in the general election. Two seats on the five-seat board will be up for election. Cristol, who currently occupies one, has already indicated that she won’t run for re-election.

The choice will have some fiscal implications for the county, too. County staff said longer ballots for the county board race could cost up to an additional $30,000, and an education campaign to explain the new system to the community could cost as much as $50,000. The county’s decision-making on ranked choice voting could also move up the timeline on replacing its voting machines, which are slated for an update in fiscal year 2025. The current machines can accommodate up to three ranked choices, but a replacement system — which will cost $2 million — would be able to accommodate up to six.

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation — patroned by Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) — that allowed Arlington to run elections using ranked choice voting (a similar measure from Del. Sally Hudson [D-Charlottesville] allowed the method for other localities in Virginia). The bill took effect in 2021, which kickstarted Arlington officials’ serious consideration of the method. In August 2021, the Arlington Office of Elections ran a demo of ranked choice voting, inviting residents to vote on their favorite Arlington farmers market in a mock-up ranked-choice election and then participate in an informational session with county elections staff. An online feedback form this fall drew 780 responses and found strong support among residents for the idea, with 75% of respondents in favor.

Just over 60 jurisdictions, including New York City and the states of Maine and Alaska, have adopted ranked choice voting as their method of choice for some races. Arlington and a handful of other localities — including Albemarle County and Charlottesville — have led the way in considering it in Virginia.

Ranked choice voting is already allowed in primaries run by political parties, and the Virginia Republican Party has used the method in several high-profile nominating contests, including in nominating Gov. Glenn Youngkin to run for governor in 2021. The Arlington Democratic Party has also used ranked choice voting in some of its nominating contests.

Reception to the idea hasn’t been all positive in the commonwealth. The Richmond City Council rejected a proposal to put ranked choice voting in place for future city council races in September, citing concerns about voter confusion and questions about how the new method might affect Black political power.

And it’s run into headwinds elsewhere in the D.C. region, too. Progressives have been advocating for ranked-choice voting in D.C. for the last two years, arguing that it would offer better outcomes in local races that often attract many candidates but leave the winner with only a plurality of votes. (There were more than 20 candidates in an At-Large D.C. Council race in 2020, the two winners of which got 25% and 16% of the vote, respectively.) In late 2021 the D.C. Council held a public hearing on a bill that would have brought the system of voting to the city. The bill stalled, though, largely because of concerns from some political activists and lawmakers that it would prove confusing for low-income voters. (There was some evidence that lower-income communities in New York City were less likely to rank all the candidates on their ballots.) Activists say they will keep pushing for ranked-choice voting next year.

Advocates and some lawmakers have similarly been pushing for ranked-choice voting in Montgomery County, but it would take approval from the General Assembly — and in recent years that approval hasn’t been granted.