Plural Voting in Nashville
Partner/s
Nashville Metro Council
Location
Nashville, Tennessee
Dates
2022
Short description of the project
RadicalxChange helped Nashville’s Metro Council pilot Plural Voting (PV) to guide its annual budget process, becoming one of the first U.S. cities to use plural voting in government. The experiment produced actionable rankings that informed budget recommendations, made deliberations more transparent, and attracted national attention as a model for how plural voting can strengthen democratic decision-making at the municipal level.
What problem did this project seek to address?
In the words of the budget committee chairwoman, Burkley Allen, “When you have 40 council members, many items to choose from and a tight budget, it’s hard to come up with anything more meaningful than ‘I want my project more than anyone else’s.’”
Who were the key audiences or communities of participants?
The 40 members of Nashville’s Metro Council who participated directly in the internal vote.
How does this support more democratic outcomes?
Builds common ground: The outputs provided a clear, quantitative foundation for budget recommendations, helping to overcome conflict and build trust around resource allocation.
How did RxC add value/support this experiment?
Tooling & operational support: RxC provided the tools, process design, facilitation and educational materials suited to the committee’s needs.
What were the outcomes or impacts?
Actionable results: The pilot produced prioritized rankings that underpinned budget recommendations from the committee chair, reportedly making deliberations more focused and data-driven.
Are there any testimonials, documents, assets, links or other ways we can illustrate this project?
“When you have 40 council members, many items to choose from and a tight budget, it’s hard to come up with anything more meaningful than ‘I want my project more than anyone else’s’… [Plural Voting] gave us a nice list of budget items to put in a meaningful order, not a bunch of things that got two votes each.” — Burkley Allen, budget committee chairwoman of the Nashville City Council
“I think the [Plural] Voting was very helpful. It helps us to provide some objective measurements for what is otherwise a pretty subjective process… I applaud [RadicalxChange] for coming out and working with us on this experiment.” — Brett Withers, representative on the Nashville City Council