Arlington County declines to use RCV for November elections
by Harry Roth
Last month, Arlington County, Virginia used ranked-choice voting for the first time. Even though it was only used for a County Board Democratic primary race, the outcome was voter confusion and delayed results. But instead of ignoring voter concerns, Arlington County officials decided against using the system for the upcoming November elections. Outgoing County Board chair Christian Dorsey said this about implementing ranked-choice voting:
“I don’t think that’s the proper thing to do at this point while we’re still gathering data, information and socializing this with the community.”
Arlington County isn’t alone in reversing course. Eleven cities in Utah have ended their involvement in the state’s ranked-choice voting pilot program citing similar concerns.
Hopefully, Arlington County can serve as a lesson to the rest of the country. Even for local primary elections, ranked-choice voting just isn’t worth it.