Falls Church Electoral Board Considers Ranked Choice Voting

This update draws on reporting by Scott McCaffrey published in Arlington Now on March 7, 2025. You can read the original article here.

Falls Church, VA — The Falls Church Electoral Board discussed ranked choice voting (RCV) at its monthly meeting last Monday. The city's Director of Elections & General Registrar Dave Bjerke outlined the equipment required to conduct ranked choice elections.

To date, two localities in Virginia have adopted RCV. Arlington has used ranked choice to elect its County Board since 2023 and Charlottesville will use ranked choice for the first time in its City Council primary this June.

Like Charlottesville, Falls Church uses voting systems sold by Hart InterCivic, which can scan and record ranked-choice ballot data but do not yet have built-in software to tabulate the election results. Instead, cities with Hart voting systems have to use external tabulation software to generate election results from scanned ballot records. 

The national RCV Resource Center produces an open-source tabulation software called RCTab, which the Virginia State Board of Elections has approved for use in Virginia. There are several factors that make RCTab an attractive option to election administrators:

• Arlington has used RCTab in three ranked choice elections thus far, and Charlottesville will use RCTab in June. 
• RCTab has also been used to conduct local ranked choice elections in Michigan, New York, and Utah, as well as by state parties in Alaska, Kansas, and Wyoming for their 2020 Presidential primaries. 
• RCTab is the only tabulation software that can combine RCV results across voting system vendors. If Virginia were to eventually permit ranked choice in elections for state or federal office, Falls Church would need tabulation software with that capability. For example, a ranked choice election for Virginia's 8th Congressional District would need to process ballots from Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, and Fairfax County, which currently use three different voting system vendors.

Despite the availability of RCTab, Bjerke suggested that Falls Church might do well to delay RCV adoption until 2027, when the city's current voting hardware is scheduled for replacement after 10 years of service. According to McCaffrey's reporting, Bjerke indicated that the City Council members he has spoken with are willing to wait for new equipment before changing election formats. Electoral Board Secretary Renee Bergmann Andrews agreed that using external tabulation software may be "cumbersome" and waiting for an all-in-one solution may be prudent. "Arlington is on the bleeding edge of this," joked Bjerke. "We can be on the leading edge," he said.

In addition to the technical questions Bjerke raised, Falls Church also faces legal constraints in adopting RCV for local elections. Current Virginia law only permits cities to use ranked choice voting in city council elections. Senator Saddam Azlan Salim, who represents Falls Church, has carried legislation to expand local authority to conduct ranked choice elections to all local offices, including mayor and school board. Virginia's Senate passed Salim's proposal in February, but the bill was narrowed in the House to remove the local expansion provision. Similar legislation could be reintroduced in 2026 or 2027. If passed, a broader local RCV law could align with equipment upgrades in Falls Church and enable more consistent city-wide use of ranked choice voting.