Community Corner: Your Guide to Ranked Choice Voting in the 2024 School Board Caucus
(Editor's Note: From time to time we will offer un-edited articles from community members on a topic of interest or concern to APS.)
By Dave Schutz, Arlington Civic Federation Board Member
Arlington Democrats are using single transferable vote ranked-choice voting, STV for their party-run SB caucus multimember selection – this is the same process as that required by the Virginia Board of Elections (and which was used in Arlington’s primary which nominated Susan Cunningham and Maureen Coffey last year). It’s very well described in the YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNxwMdI8OWw
Another multi-winner ranked choice method is preferential block voting Preferential block is less usual, but was used in the 2020 Dems’ SB Caucus and also is being used in some Republican Utah jurisdictions. In preferential block, each candidate must get half the votes to get a seat, and it takes multiple counts. If there is no majority winner on first count, the candidates who have the fewest number one votes lose and the number twos from those ballots are counted as a first choice. This process is repeated until a candidate exceeds ½ of the votes, and that candidate is elected. Then the winner's name is struck from all of the ballots, and the process is repeated with the number twos on the winner’s ballots taken as number ones. This is described at http://www.math.byu.edu/~jarvis/Voting.html
Many find preferential block to be more intuitive than the STV method. It is not a proportional mechanism – if there are several factions competing in an election (ethnic groups, tree advocates, pro- and anti- zoning change groups, renter interest advocates, etc) only the largest faction will gain election. Preferential block answers one of the frequent questions about use of STV in our recent County Board primary: “what happened to my second vote? I voted number one for one of the winners, and then my second and third choice votes didn’t matter. How is this fair?’ And the answer for preferential block is that all of the second choice votes from the ballots which elected the first winner get brought back. The counter-question, though, would be, ‘why did the people who elected the first winner get their ballots counted again? How is this fair?’
The STV ranked-choice system is adapted to representation of factions/minorities approximately in proportion to their numbers. If a candidate from one group has gotten more votes than the threshold for election and been declared a winner, her/his ballots will have been used in her/his win, and the remaining ballots will be enriched for those favoring the other group(s). We saw a proportional result in 2023 Arlington when Roy and Cunningham had backing from many members of the same faction of Dem voters, Spain and Coffey had backing from a different faction, and each faction got one nominee.
The appendices are the statute authorizing and the regulations for implementing ranked choice voting in a multi-winner election in Virginia. In somewhat plainer language: the number of ballots cast determines the threshold for election – which will be B times the fraction 1/n+1, where B is the number of ballots cast and n is the number of candidates to be selected. So if, in our coming SB Caucus, 9000 ballots are cast, and 2 is the number of candidates to be nominated, 9000 times 1/3 (three is two nominees plus one) is three thousand number one ballots.
Here's a theoretical example: suppose you had four SB candidates for 2 nominations – Frank Wilson, Gail Nuckols, Mary Margaret Whipple, and Barbara Kanninen. And suppose there was a Wilson-Nuckols faction and a Whipple-Kanninen faction. Nine thousand ballots cast, threshold is three thousand Number Ones. Frank Wilson gets 4200 Number Ones, Nuckols gets eleven hundred, Whipple gets 2800, Kanninen gets 900. Wilson gets selected! 4000 of his number twos are for Nuckols, two hundred for Whipple. There is a transfer to Nuckols and Whipple from his surplus “Each ballot counting for an elected person is assigned a new transfer value by multiplying the ballot's current transfer value by the surplus fraction for the elected person, truncated after the fourth decimal place. The transfer value of each ballot cast for a selected candidate must be transferred to the highest-ranked active candidate on that ballot” (Appendix 1) so 12/42, .2857 of his ballot total will transfer – 1143 to Nuckols and fifty-seven to Whipple. Now the totals are (Wilson selected) 2243 Nuckols, Whipple 2857, Kanninen 900. Kanninen declared a loser, her #2 ballots go 800 to Whipple and 100 to Nuckols. Whipple at 3657, beats the threshold, is selected.
Notable here is that the Wilson-Nuckols faction got 5300 votes and the Whipple-Kanninen faction got 3700 votes, and each got a nominee. The answer to the “What happened to my second vote” for Wilson voters is that the fraction of a Wilson backer’s vote which was surplus was distributed proportionally to the second choices of Wilson voters.
This explainer was prepared by Dave Schutz, and any voters who found it confusing are invited to contact him to think about it further – porgschu@verizon.net.
Appendix 1. 1VAC20-100-50. Ranked choice voting tabulation.
A. First-choice ranking tabulation round. For all elections for an office conducted by ranked choice voting, only first-choice rankings shall be counted in the first-choice ranking tabulation round. If any candidate has a vote total greater than or equal to the maximum possible threshold, that person shall be designated as elected. If the number of candidates whose vote total is equal to or greater than the maximum possible threshold is equal to the number of seats to be filled, those candidates are declared elected and tabulation in additional rounds shall not be conducted. If the number of candidates whose vote total is equal to or greater than the maximum possible threshold is less than the number of seats to be filled, tabulation shall proceed as set forth in subsections B and C of this section.
B. Instant runoff voting round. For any election for one office conducted by ranked choice voting, each active ballot shall count as one vote in each round for the highest-ranked active candidate on that ballot. Tabulation shall proceed in rounds with each round proceeding sequentially as follows:
1. If any active candidate has a majority of votes from active ballots in a round of tabulation, that person shall be designated as elected and the tabulation is complete.
2. If two or fewer active candidates remain, the candidate with the greatest number of votes is elected and tabulation is complete.
3. If more than two active candidates remain and no candidate has a majority of votes on active ballots in a round of tabulation, the active candidate with the fewest votes is defeated, votes for the defeated candidate are transferred to each ballot's highest-ranked active candidate, and a new round begins with subdivision 1 of this subsection.
C. Single transferable vote round. For any election for more than one office conducted by ranked choice voting, each active ballot shall count, at its current transfer value, for the highest-ranked active candidate on that ballot. Tabulation shall proceed in rounds. Each round proceeds sequentially, until tabulation is complete, as follows:
1. If the sum of the number of elected persons and the number of active candidates is less than or equal to the number of office seats to be filled, then all active candidates are designated as elected, and tabulation is complete. Otherwise, the tabulation proceeds pursuant to subdivision 2 of this subsection.
2. If any active candidate has a number of votes greater than or equal to the election threshold for the contest, that person shall be designated as elected. Each ballot counting for an elected person is assigned a new transfer value by multiplying the ballot's current transfer value by the surplus fraction for the elected person, truncated after the fourth decimal place. The transfer value of each ballot cast for an elected candidate must be transferred to the highest-ranked active candidate on that ballot. Each person elected under this subdivision is deemed to have a number of votes equal to the election threshold for the contest in all future rounds and a new round begins pursuant to subdivision 1 of this subsection.
3. If no candidate or person is elected pursuant to subdivision 2 of this subsection, the candidate with the fewest votes is defeated and votes for the defeated candidates shall be transferred at their current transfer value to each ballot's next-ranked active candidate and a new round begins pursuant to subdivision 1 of this subsection.
D. Surplus transfer. If in a round of counting conducted under subsection C of this section, two or more active candidates have a number of surplus votes greater than the election threshold for the contest, the surpluses shall be distributed in rounds in which the largest surplus is distributed first, with any ties resolved by lot as required by § 24.2-674 of the Code of Virginia.
E. Tools, including software, used for tabulation in subsections B and C must be approved for use by the Department of Elections
Appendix 2. Statutory Authority § 24.2-673.1 of the Code of Virginia.
§ 24.2-673.1. (Expires July 1, 2031) Ranked choice voting.
A. For purposes of this section:
"Ranked choice voting" means a method of casting and tabulating votes in which (i) voters rank candidates in order of preference, (ii) tabulation proceeds in rounds such that in each round either a candidate or candidates are elected or the last-place candidate is defeated, (iii) votes for voters' next-ranked candidates are transferred from elected or defeated candidates, and (iv) tabulation ends when the number of candidates elected equals the number of offices to be filled. "Ranked choice voting" is known as "instant runoff voting" when electing a single office and "single transferable vote" when electing multiple offices.
"Ranking" means the ordinal number assigned on a ballot by a voter to a candidate to express the voter's preference for that candidate. Ranking number one is the highest ranking, ranking number two is the next-highest ranking, and so on, consecutively, up to the number of candidates indicated on the ballot.
B. Elections of members of a county board of supervisors or a city council may be conducted by ranked choice voting pursuant to this section. The decision to conduct an election by ranked choice voting shall be made, in consultation with the local electoral board and general registrar, by a majority vote of the board of supervisors or city council that the office being elected serves.
C. The State Board may promulgate regulations for the proper and efficient administration of elections determined by ranked choice voting, including (i) procedures for tabulating votes in rounds, (ii) procedures for determining winners in elections for offices to which only one candidate is being elected and to which more than one candidate is being elected, and (iii) standards for ballots pursuant to § 24.2-613, notwithstanding the provisions of subsection E of that section.
D. The State Board may administer or prescribe standards for a voter outreach and public information program for use by any locality conducting ranked choice voting pursuant to this section.
