Kim Phillip, a civic and political activist with roots in the Arlington County Democratic Committee and 8th District Democratic Committee, on Jan. 1 becomes the newest member of the Arlington Electoral Board.
Phillip was appointed by Circuit Court Chief Judge William Newman Jr. to succeed Charlene Bickford, who has served two lengthy stints totaling 24 years and currently chairs the three-member body.
Phillip will join Democrat Matt Weinstein and Republican Scott McGeary on the panel. Her term, like all those of local Electoral Board members in Virginia, runs for three years.
Under state law, political parties submit a slate of prospective appointees to the Circuit Court, whose members either make the appointment collectively or delegate the decision to the chief judge. Phillip was among the nominees submitted by Arlington County Democratic Committee chairman Jill Caiazzo.
Arlington is likely to provide a number of satellite centers for early voting in the 2021 general election â but how many there will be, and where they will be located, remain open questions.
âEarly voting is here to stay,â predicted county elections chief Gretchen Reinemeyer, briefing Electoral Board members during a Dec. 16 meeting.
And while 2020 may prove an aberration because of public-health conditions, the data certainly bear out that likelihood. Of just over 131,000 Arlington residents casting ballots, 46 percent voted early at in-person sites, 37 percent cast ballots by mail and only 17 percent voted at their regular polling places on Nov. 3.
Anticipating a flood of early voters for the 2020 general election, Arlington officials set up four early-voting satellite centers, located at the Langston-Brown, Madison, Aurora Hills and Walter Reed community centers. They were open from Oct. 17-31 to augment the traditional in-person-absentee voting location in the
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But there are some hiccups.
âThereâs a lot of pieces involved,â said county elections chief Gretchen Reinemeyer, who aims to convene a summit of involved parties â county staff, Virginia Department of Elections, equipment vendors â early in the new year to âhash out all the details.â
At the request of Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), the General Assembly earlier this year voted to allow Arlington to serve as an instant-runoff guinea pig before other localities have the option to implement it a year from now.
The instant-runoff process already is in use when the Arlington County Democratic Committee selects its nominees for local office through a caucus, though not in state-run primaries. When filling out ballots, voters are allowed (but not required) to rank candidates in order of preference; should no candidate receive 50 percent of the vote on the first ballot, the lowest scoring candidate is eliminated, and his/her votes are reallocated based