Ranked-choice voting – C-VILLE Weekly

At its August 19 meeting, Charlottesville City Council delved into a number of hot-button local issues, including council salaries and ranked-choice voting.

Under new legislation from the Virginia General Assembly, city governments can now vote to increase salaries, with pay limits determined by locality population size.

A proposed salary ordinance would increase councilors’ annual pay from $18,000 to $34,000 and the mayor’s salary from $20,000 to $37,000.

“It seems to me that [this] sends a very unwelcome message to people, and I don’t think it’s a wise idea,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook. The councilor has been vocal in his opposition to the salary increase, citing the bad optics of raising pay amid continuous tax hikes by the city.

Councilor Natalie Oschrin rebutted Snook, arguing an increase in pay would allow more people the financial opportunity to serve on the council. “I think that’s actually an interesting choice of words, ‘unwelcome,’ when, from our perspective, it would be more welcoming for more people to be able to join this board,” she said.

Councilors at the August 19 city council meeting ultimately voted to increase council salaries effective July 1, 2026 by a vote of 4-1, with Snook the sole dissenting vote. This is the first pay increase for the council since 1996. The next round of city council elections will occur prior to the implementation of the raises.

Moving down the agenda, councilors considered an ordinance adopting ranked-choice voting for the Charlottes—ville City Council’s June 2025 primary elections.

“With our equipment that we have in Charlottesville, [voters] will be able to make up to six rankings for candidates,” said General Registrar and Director of Elections Taylor Yowell.

Two council seats will appear on the ballot next June, meaning candidates need to obtain 33.3 percent of the vote if the ranked-choice system is adopted. The percentage needed to declare a winning candidate or candidates in a ranked-choice election is determined by the number of available seats.

Several community members spoke in favor of the ranked-choice voting ordinance during the community matters portion of the meeting, including former delegate and founder of Ranked Choice Virginia Sally Hudson.

“Charlottesville has a long history of being proud to be a cradle of democracy, and there’s a long history of ranked-choice voting activism in this community,” said Hudson. “Ranked-choice voting started in Charlottesville more than 20 years ago when UVA students first adopted ranked-choice for their student council elections. And while that may not sound like a very big deal, roughly 5,000 students cast their ballots for student council every year on grounds—which is almost as many people who vote in a Charlottesville city council primary.”

Councilors voiced both questions and support for the voting system, but the decision on implementation is still up in the air. The second and final reading of the ranked-choice voting ordinance, along with the council’s vote, is slated to appear on the consent agenda at the next Charlottesville City Council meeting on September 3.

For more information about the ordinances or to watch the full council meeting, visit charlottesville.gov.

Charlottesville City Council will formally consider a draft ranked-choice voting ordinance at its August 19 meeting. If approved, Charlottesville would become the second locality in Virginia to adopt ranked-choice voting, and the new voting system will be used on a trial basis in the city’s 2025 election.

Under a ranked-choice system, voters can rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the first preference vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is then eliminated. Voters who selected the eliminated candidate as their first choice then have their second preference candidate votes tallied and added to the vote totals. The process continues until a candidate has earned a simple majority of votes.

“The beauty of ranked-choice voting is it ensures that we elect leaders who actually build coalitions from the breadth of their community, rather than just rallying an extreme minority,” says former delegate Sally Hudson. “It lets voters vote for who they really like no matter how many candidates run.”

During her time in the Virginia General Assembly, Hudson introduced a bill allowing cities to adopt ranked-choice voting. She went on to found Ranked Choice Virginia in 2021 and continues to advocate for the adoption of the voting system across the commonwealth.

Benefits to ranked-choice voting are numerous, according to Hudson. Key positives include empowering voters to select their preferred candidate and reducing, if not completely eliminating, the risk of splitting the vote among like-minded candidates.

“If it turns out that your favorite candidate is not among the most popular picks, you still get a voice in who the final selection is from your community, from the last candidates,” she says. “Once candidates don’t have to worry about splitting the vote and accidentally tipping the scales toward someone they don’t support, we see more candidates who are willing to throw their hat in the ring, and that means that voters get more options.”

Locally, Hudson says one of the races that could most benefit from ranked-choice voting is city council elections.

“We now have the virtue of having wide fields run for just a handful of city council seats each year, and that’s exactly when you can see vote splitting,” she says. “Somebody [can] get elected to council with a relatively small share of the vote, maybe only 20 or 30 percent … a ranked choice election can ensure that you find the winners who really do have broad support in the community and don’t just have a super vocal slice that is out of step with the rest.”

Though Charlottesville City Council will formally consider the adoption of ranked-choice voting for the first time on August 19, preparations have already begun behind the scenes for the possibility of using the voting system in local elections in 2025. A number of logistical steps have been taken (namely, finding ranked-choice-capable software for voting machines), but the largest hurdle is still to come: voter education.

“It’s a switch for people,” says Hudson. “Once voters have a chance to see it in action, they consistently report that they understand the new system and that they like it. … You do have to do voter education, but if you do it and you do it well, then voters get it. They like it. They want to do it again.”