The voice of the people has been heard, and Charlottesville’s Christmas tree has been named.
Spruce Lee is set to be lit this coming Friday at the city’s annual Grand Illumination in front of City Hall.
The name, a play on movie star and martial artist Bruce Lee, beat out Treelor Swift, Boots with the Fir and Oatmeal III, with 753 voters participating.
The public votes every year on a new tree’s name, but this year things were a little different.
After the city decided to adopt ranked-choice voting for next year’s summer City Council primary, Charlottesville voters got a chance to test drive the new voting model to decide the name of this year’s Christmas tree.
The idea was “to offer the community familiarity and practice using the process ahead of the City Council election next year,” the city said in a statement announcing the new voting model.
In a typical election, voters select only one candidate per office. But in ranked-choice voting, voters cast multiple votes to rank their top choices.
If a voter’s first-choice candidate receives the least number of votes, that candidate is eliminated from the race. But the voter’s ballot is then transferred to their second-favorite candidate. The process continues until a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.
“Ranked choice voting helps communities build consensus when there are several different options,” the city said. “Even if your favorite doesn’t win, you can still help pick the winner with your backup choices.”
Charlottesville is only the second locality to experiment with ranked-choice voting in the commonwealth of Virginia. Arlington County, the first, only adopted ranked-choice voting for county board seats last year.
Spruce Lee secured 59% of the final-round votes in this year’s election. Treelor Swift was knocked out in the first round of voting with only 18%. Oatmeal III was defeated in the second round with 24%. And Boots with the Fir ended the third and final round with 38%.
Ranked Choice Virginia, an advocacy group pushing for ranked-choice voting across the commonwealth, said the recent vote was a helpful tutorial for Charlottesville voters heading into next year’s primary.
“This race had one winner because the City has one official holiday tree, but some elections have more than winner, like Charlottesville City Council,” the group said in a statement announcing the election results. “When the City holds its first ranked choice election next June, voters will be nominating two candidates for Council, so it’s worth exploring how this race would have worked with two winners.”
When electing two winners, each winner needs to earn at least a third of the votes.
“If two candidates each have more than 1/3, then all the other candidates must have less than 1/3, so we know those two must be the top two,” the group said. “The same principle can be used to select any number of winners.”
Ranked Choice Virginia said it plans to host more “fun elections” ahead of next summer’s primary. Anyone with questions or feedback is encouraged to reach out directly to the group at hello@rankedchoiceva.org.
Charlottesville’s Grand Illumination is set to take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Ting Pavilion by City Hall at the eastern end of the city’s Downtown Mall. The ceremony and celebration’s itinerary includes a Christmas market, an “ale trail,” carol-singing and a visit from Santa Claus himself.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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