On Feb. 3, Virginia Senate Democrats approved a bill, SB 1009 to extend ranked-choice (RCV) voting in local elections. The burden of educating voters on the confusing system will fall on the taxpayers across the state. The bill was passed on a party-line vote of 21-19 and will now be sent to the House of Delegates where Democrats have a two-seat majority.

RCV is a confusing process that confuses voters and unfairly benefits establishment elites. If this bill is passed, Virginia will be on its way to adopting a billionaire-funded scheme that rigs elections against Republicans.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, (R), vetoed a similar bill last April that did NOT allow localities to use RCV for all local races. In his veto, he stated that “Concerns were raised regarding its use in general election where some voters found it confusing.” Youngkin stated that “legitimate” questions needed to be addressed before any additional RCV legislation could be introduced.

Instead of choosing the candidate they wish to win in an RCV, voters rank all candidates. In the event that no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote on the first count then the last place finisher is eliminated and the second choice of voters for the last placed finisher are distributed. The process is repeated as many times as necessary, until the total of a candidate’s first- and second-place votes exceeds 50 percent. This results in the unpopular candidate with a higher name recognition who placed second or third at first being able to win. Voters who don’t rank or do not understand the system can give educated elites with moderate views and voters without strong opinions more influence in elections.

Restoration News previously discussed the Virginia 2020 law which allowed city councilmembers and county supervisors to implement RCV in their races. This was a shameful self-dealing setup that allowed entrenched incumbents vote themselves an advantage. SB 1009 would extend the 2020 law so that it applies to all local races if the governing bodies of those jurisdictions vote to enact the law.

Virginia is now one step closer to implementing ranked-choice vote statewide.

Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Fairfax, the bill’s principal sponsor, played the bill down during the Senate Floor vote, calling the bill “a minor modification to the existing pilot program established in 2020.” He said, “This bill will give localities flexibility to include school boards and/or mayors in their ranked choice adoption.  “This is simply giving localities a second option for how they would like to hold their local elections.”

Only the most lopsided Democrat municipality in Virginia has adopted the RCV by the time of the 2024 elections, revealing its widespread unpopularity. If more supervisors and councilmembers in local jurisdictions reject RCV, Democrats will have to rely on serious astroturfing from wealthy donors to convince these people to adopt RCV for the mayor’s race or for their own school board.

The League of Women Voters and Upvote Virginia are two of the most prominent groups in Virginia pushing for RCV. Supporting RCV, like the Democrats’ push to create an independent redistricting panel–which backfired after Democrats won both the House of Representatives and Senate in 2019, is a ploy for them to maintain their slim majority in the General Assembly. Its supporters dress RCV up in high-minded nonpartisanship, but it’s telling that so few Republicans–and almost no conservatives–support it.

If SB 1009 is passed, the burden on taxpayers will increase if more localities adopt RCV. The bill also adds to the State Board of Elections that it “shall publish generalized voter educational materials on ranked-choice voting on its website, and assist any locality which has decided to conduct elections using ranked-choice voting by developing voter education material specific to that particular locality on request.”

It takes a lot of resources to educate voters about ranked choice voting, especially since most of them have not attended school for longer than the graduating class of last year. , the RCV’s proponents, felt obliged to create a manual of 19 pages on how to vote when Maine became first state to adopt RCV.

If SB 1009 is passed, and if RCV were to ever gain statewide traction, it will burden Virginian taxpayers with the cost of educating voters about this confusing system.

Lauren Eddy is the general registrar of Albemarle County and director of elections. She says that it would be $70,000 to for her 116,000-person county in order to purchase software and provide voter education. This is only for city councilmembers, supervisors, and other races. This cost would increase exponentially if the RCV was adopted in all of the county’s school board and mayoral races.

The 2020 misguided law will expire in 2031 if it is not reauthorized. Only Arlington and Charlottesville adopted it, proving that Virginians don’t support the top-down effort by elites to entrench existing interests. SB 1009 aims to keep RCV alive, and if the House of Delegates passes it, Gov. Glenn Youngkin should veto the bill. The past-the post system, which has been in place for decades, is better not only because it is understood by the people but also because it rewards grassroots voting. RCV rewards establishment-backed candidates from both parties that come in second.