Democrats in Fairfax County’s Braddock District will head to the polls Saturday to pick their nominee for the Board of Supervisors, marking the county’s first use of in a primary.
The firehouse primary comes after James Walkinshaw resigned his Braddock District seat earlier this month, following . The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Ken Balbuena, a civic association president from North Springfield, in a Dec. 9 special election.
In alphabetical order by last name, the Democratic candidates are:
a small business leader and co-president of the Fairfax Young Democrats.
, a longtime at-large Fairfax County School Board member.
, Braddock District School Board member.
, librarian and community volunteer from Ravensworth Farm.
How Ranked Choice Voting Works
Instead of choosing a single candidate, voters rank the four candidates in order of preference. If no one wins more than 50% of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated. If someone’s first choice was eliminated, their vote is moved to their second choice on the ballot. This process repeats until one candidate secures a majority of the votes.
“Ranked choice voting when you’re electing one person to represent a whole electorate, the best floor we can put in place is we can say, all right, you have to have the support of at least 50% of the voters, and that’s going to guarantee that a majority has to support somebody in order for them to get elected,” said Liz White, executive director of UpVote Virginia, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for RCV.
White said the process is “like a caucus on paper, where you don’t have to stay in a high school gym till two in the morning or worry about childcare.”
SEE ALSO |
Voting Options
Only voters registered in the Braddock District are eligible to participate.
Voters can cast ballots online or in person, but online registration has already closed.
Online voters who pre-registered by 5 p.m. Wednesday will receive their ballot link by email at noon Thursday. Online voting ends Saturday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m.
In-person voting will be held Saturday, Oct. 4, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at three sites:
Fairfax County Government Center.
Braddock District Supervisor’s Office.
Landings Community Center in Burke.
All ballots will be cast electronically through the system. Voters who go in person will use laptops provided by the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. There will be no paper ballots. will be on hand at polling sites to answer voter questions.
Results are expected immediately after polls close at 5 p.m.
“This is the first time we will use ranked choice voting software, ElectionBuddy, for a primary. This will help us know the results right away,” said Aaron Yohai, chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. “I encourage all Democrats in Braddock District to participate.”
All participants must present photo identification and sign a pledge agreeing to support the Democratic nominee in the Dec. 9 special election.
Why December 9?
Some voters have asked why this special election is not being held during the November general election. Under Virginia law, the Fairfax Board of Supervisors because of the timing of Walkinshaw’s resignation, which was submitted the day after his congressional win. The court approved that request.
Fairfax County has had a heavy election cycle. Since the 2024 presidential election, voters have already cast ballots in a congressional primary and a special election to fill the late Rep. Gerry Connolly’s seat. Walkinshaw’s victory in that race created the current vacancy on the Board of Supervisors, meaning Braddock District voters will now participate in a Democratic primary, the November general election, and the December special election.
The winner of the December special election will serve through 2027, when all are next up for election.
SEE ALSO |
Bipartisan Roots and Future Expansion
Virginia has a bipartisan history with ranked choice voting.
“In 2021, the Republican Party of Virginia used ranked choice voting in their unassembled convention to nominate Governor Youngkin and Lieutenant Governor Sears, and Attorney General Miyares, and that clearly went so well for them,” White said.
She added that Democrats have advanced RCV legislation as well, with Arlington and Charlottesville leading the way in local primaries.
White called the Braddock contest “the perfect situation. They have four qualified candidates running for this office. They have a (highly informed), engaged electorate who can show up and grasp ranked choice voting and rank those four candidates in order of how they support them, and we can identify a candidate who has the majority of the support.”
She said UpVote Virginia hopes this local contest will help pave the way for wider adoption: “If people like using ranked choice voting, I hope that this is a gateway toward expanding it within Fairfax County and in more localities across the state.”
White added that her organization sees RCV as part of a bigger democratic reform effort.
“We see that as a really concrete step toward lowering the temperature, addressing some of our hyper partisanship, and really re-incentivizing compromise and nuance and bringing that kind of conversation back into politics,” White said.