They remain unofficial until certified on Monday evening, but Arlington election officials today [6/22] released final vote totals in the five-way County Board Democratic primary, run using ranked-choice voting.
After candidates Julie Farnam, James DeVita and Tenley Peterson were eliminated, the fourth and final round gave J.D. Spain Sr. 10,656 votes to 8,743 for Natalie Roy. The victory threshold was 9,655.
Saturday's figures included some provisional ballots that under state law could not have been counted until that day at noon. They did not have any material impact on the results of the race.
Total voter turnout was 20,338, or about 11.2 percent of Arlington's active registered voters.
When Election Night results were reported on Tuesday [6/18], showing Spain running in front with Roy and Peterson bunched behind him and DeVita and Farnam trailing, the likely ranked-choice trajectory became apparent. If things played out as expected, Roy would pick up votes from Farnam and DeVita as those candidates were eliminated, but it would not be enough to catapult her to victory. Then when Peterson was bounced from contention, a large percentage of her voters would move over to Spain, giving him the victory.
Which is exactly how things did play out.
By the third round, with Farnam and DeVita out, Roy had taken a 7,359-to-7,217 lead over Spain, but Peterson had 5,380 votes. When Peterson was eliminated, 3,348 of her voters went to Spain, just 1,384 to Roy, with the remainder going to neither candidate.
