Fair Representation with Ranked Choice Voting
Ending a century of winner-take-all elections in Charlottesville
This is the final piece in a five-part series tracing the historic roots of Charlottesville's former block voting system. Learn more about how block voting works, why it spread, and how local leaders organized for change in prior generations.
Decades after the NAACP's first ward campaign, the residents who fought hardest for electoral reform had grown weary of repeated failures. The ward system still lacked broad support in Charlottesville, and Virginia law left cities with few other options.
But a new path emerged in 2020, when the General Assembly finally loosened Virginia's restrictive election laws. Legislation authored by Charlottesville Delegate Sally Hudson granted cities and counties the right to use ranked choice voting in local elections, offering reformers a new tool for securing fair representation while addressing concerns that had undermined ward campaigns. In September 2024, City Council passed an ordinance authorizing the city's first ranked choice primary, setting the stage for this June's election.
Ranked choice voting is a promising option for Charlottesville because it solves the core problems that stalled past reform efforts. Unlike block voting, which allows one group of voters to pick all the seats, ranked choice voting allows diverse viewpoints to win representation in proportion to their share of the electorate. And unlike ward systems, ranked choice doesn't rely on residential segregation to achieve diversity. Minority voters — by virtue of race, wealth, age, or ideology — can build coalitions throughout the city and win their fair share of seats. In effect, ranked choice combines the virtues of both wards and at-large elections, expressing diversity while still allowing council members to maintain the flexible, citywide perspective that appeals to at-large advocates.
Charlottesville's first ranked choice election this June marks a turning point in the city's history and an end to a century of winner-take-all politics. For the first time since 1923, the city is embracing an election system designed to express diverse voices, not concentrate power. By adopting ranked choice voting, Charlottesville is not just changing how we mark our ballots, but fulfilling a vision of fair representation that reformers have pursued for generations.
You can learn more about ranked choice voting in the video below and get ready to rank your vote with our Voter Guide.
