Tuesday’s election delivered two major voting reforms to the District of Columbia. Initiative 83, which passed overwhelmingly, has two components — first, it will allow independent voters to cast ballots in D.C. primaries and second, it will bring ranked choice voting to the city.
In D.C., where Democrats dominate and Republicans are hardly heard from in citywide results, elections tend to be won or lost in the primary — months ahead of the November election.
Lisa Rice, a D.C. resident and the lead supporter of the initiative, was motivated by her frustration as an independent voter who was shut out of primary elections.
“There are 75,000 of us who will be enfranchised and we will be able to vote in the election of consequence here in D.C. … We’re going to have politicians working harder for the people, by letting independents vote in primary elections,” said Rice.
While Arlington County continues with its pilot program of ranked choice voting, Initiative 83 will bring the same procedure to D.C.
“You vote for your favorite candidate and then you rank your backed up choices. If your favorite doesn’t win, your vote simply moves to your next choice until a candidate wins with 50%,” said Rice.
“I’ll be voting ‘no’ on the initiative,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a high-profile critic of the idea, said last month.
She called ranked choice voting “a very complicated election system.”
“I am totally against ranked choice voting,” Bowser said. “I don’t think that our very good experience with elections suggests that we need to make any change.”
Rice said she thinks the system is “different,” rather than “complicated.”
“Voters like it and voters get used to it,” Rice said.
The measure has been approved by the voters, next it must be funded by the D.C. Council.
“Before the end of the year, it will be before them. We really are excited about that and we look forward to being part of the discussions about the budget process. … Our hope is this will be implemented in time for the 2026 election cycle — the June primary,” said Rice.
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