“Virginia will consider allowing parties to use ranked choice voting for presidential primaries — but not just yet.
Ranked choice voting allows people to rank multiple candidates in order of preference. Generally, under ranked choice voting, if a voter’s first choice is eliminated, the top vote is transferred to the voter’s second choice, and so on.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, pulled his bill from the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Tuesday after he heard feedback from the Department of Elections, which said it had logistical concerns.
Deeds said that Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals dropped by his office and, when he asked her about his bill, she relayed that “the state board of elections did not feel like they could technologically do this right now.”
That is because Virginia only recently allowed elections for city council and boards of supervisors to be conducted through ranked choice voting.
Additionally, Virginia allows localities to use four different types of voting machines, which could complicate things should local registrars around the state coordinate ranked choice voting in a presidential election.
Deeds said he felt it was best to pull his bill for now and reintroduce it later, perhaps next year. He is confident the matter will be worked out in the future.”
Read more here at Richmond Times Dispatch
