Phil Jones didn’t win a majority of the votes to become Newport News’ mayor in 2022.
He got about 40% of the votes cast, but that was enough to be the best in the four-way race.
“But that still means that two thirds of individuals, for the most part, wanted someone else,” Jones told WHRO this week.
That helped inspire Jones to become an advocate for ranked choice voting, a system that has been garnering support to replace the winner-take-all voting system that has long dominated American politics.
He’s joining a growing chorus of local officials pushing for the state to expand voting options ahead of the upcoming General Assembly session.
In ranked choice voting systems like those Jones champions, voters list their preferred candidates in order from first to last. When the votes are tallied, if no candidate gets a majority of the first choice votes, the lowest vote-getter is dropped. Votes that listed that person as their first choice are then redistributed to the candidates listed on those ballots as the second choice. The process repeats until someone has a majority of the votes.
Studies show ranked choice voting can increase voter participation and advocates say it can help reduce polarization in politics.
“Post this presidential election, it’s very clear that there's two different parties and that the divide is only growing. I believe that there's multiple things that we can do to bring us back toward the center, but one of those is advancing ranked choice voting here in the Commonwealth,” Jones said.
The Center for Effective Government at the University of Chicago says ranked choice voting tends to elect more moderate candidates — those who would have broad support but may not stand out as a popular first choice.
“To me, it all comes down to good governance, and what are some policies that we can create at the state and local level to encourage more people to be involved in the democratic process,” Jones said.
The idea isn’t exactly new.
Democrats under Gov. Ralph Northam gave localities the option to adopt ranked choice voting for boards and council elections in 2020, though to date only two have opted in. Arlington used ranked choice to elect its new county board this November and Charlottesville voted in September to adopt the system beginning with next June’s city council primary.
Newport News is considering it as part of a larger suite of local government changes, but Jones said he thinks it needs to include all of the local offices, like treasurer and school board.
Current law limits the use of ranked choice voting to only elections for mayors, city councils and county boards.
“It's going to be hard to pass this at the city level if it doesn't include everyone,” he said.
To do that, localities need the blessing of the General Assembly.
There aren’t any ranked choice voting measures among the bills filed so far for the 2025 General Assembly session in January. But Jones said he’s had some discussions and expects a big push for legislative action spearheaded by local officials out of Charlottesville.
A measure to expand the local offices that can be elected via ranked choice vote was introduced in this year’s General Assembly, but went nowhere.
Opposition to this kind of voting reform has tended to fall along party lines. Another 2024 bill to let state parties use ranked choice in presidential primaries passed the Democrat-controlled Senate in a 21-19 party line vote. That bill went on to die in a House committee, but fared better than a similar 2023 measure that didn’t even make it out of committee in the Senate.
Jones said he’s heard some concerns from other corners as well. Some people have wondered about the wisdom of changing the system now, when historically disenfranchised folks have finally taken greater power. Portsmouth’s Don Scott, for instance, became Virginia’s first Black Speaker of the House early this year. He and every other state representative in place now have been elected the standard way.
Still, Jones said, the state should open it up as an alternative.
“I think I'm just trying to make a good decision for my city and ultimately the Commonwealth,” he said. “If the localities want to do (ranked choice voting), then we should have the option.”
