This Sunday's guest column for the Virginian-Pilot, "Time for Virginia to Embrace Ranked Choice Voting" reprinted in the PilotOnline digital Edition was written by mayor of Newport News, Virginia; Phillip Jones.

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This Sunday's guest column for the Virginian-Pilot, Time for Virginia to Embrace Ranked Choice Voting. reprinted in the PilotOnline digital Edition was written by mayor of Newport News, Virginia, Phillip Jones. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a Marine Corps infantry officer before earning his master's degrees in business and public policy from Harvard University. Born in 1989, he is youngest elected mayor of Newport News.

Though the 2024 elections held the nation in suspense, the results confirmed what we already knew: Our country is divided between two warring parties that each draw votes from roughly half the people. Amid such deep divisions, it's tempting to conclude that Americans can't agree on anything, but the truth is we share common ground on a wide range of issues. The vast majority of voters support popular proposals on core issues such as job training and health care. So why don't we see candidates emerge who can bridge the divide and unite voters around priorities they already share?

The answer lies in a simple but overlooked feature of American elections. In most of our elections, voters can only support one candidate -- no matter how many candidates run. That simple principle may sound sensible, but it poses a challenging risk. If a new candidate enters a race and attempts to bridge the gap between the frontrunners, the entrant risks dividing the voters and tipping the race toward a candidate they like least. The vote-splitting problem only gets worse as more candidates run. The wider the field, the fewer votes the winner may need to come out ahead.

As a result, winners in multi-candidate races often emerge without support from the majority of voters. Richmond, Roanoke, Winchester and Virginia Beach all elected mayors this year in wide-field races with a winner who earned less than half the votes. In my own four-way race for mayor of Newport News in 2022, I won with 40% of the votes, which means nearly 60% of the voters supported someone else. Though I'm proud to serve our city, I'd much rather build a winning coalition from a broader range of residents.

There's a practical solution to the vote-splitting problem, and it's called ranked-choice voting. In a ranked-choice election, you don't just vote for one candidate. You get to rank the candidates in the order that you like them -- your first choice, second choice, third choice and so on. The ballots are then tallied in an instant runoff, where the last-place finisher is eliminated in each round, and their supporters' votes transfer to the next choice on their ballots. The instant runoff continues until the top candidate emerges with majority support. In the process, voters get the freedom to express how they feel about all the options -- without fear of wasting their votes -- and candidates get rewarded for building coalitions around the issues that matter most, so we all get elected leaders who better reflect the wide range of people they serve.

Given the benefits of ranked-choice voting, communities across the country are making the switch. Arlington used ranked choice to elect its county board this fall, and Charlottesville will use ranked choice to elect its city council next year. They're joining more than 50 communities nationwide that already hold ranked-choice elections, from major cities such as New York, Minneapolis and Santa Fe, to smaller towns in Utah, Colorado and Vermont. Last week, more than 70% of Washington, D.C., voters approved a ballot measure to adopt ranked choice for their elections, too.

Exit polls from ranked-choice elections consistently show that voters understand the new system once they see it in action, and they prefer ranked-choice ballots to the old-school, single-choice method. Turns out voters like having options and candidates who are focused more on what we have in common than divide-and-conquer games.

For now, Virginia law only permits localities to use ranked choice in elections for city council and county board, but this year's elections show it's time for the General Assembly to expand that authority to all local offices. As we look toward the next legislative session, I hope our state leaders in Richmond will support expanding ranked-choice voting and bring better elections to us all.

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.