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Arlington rolls out AI assistant 'AVA' and ranked‑choice voting outreach ahead of November election

5782206 · September 18, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

County staff launched AVA, a county‑specific AI chatbot, and outlined a ranked‑choice voting education partnership with Challenging Racism and FairVote and Rank Choice Virginia ahead of early voting starting Sept. 19.

At the Sept. 16 meeting County Board members heard two technology and voter‑education updates: the public rollout of AVA, an Arlington‑only virtual assistant, and the start of ranked‑choice voting (RCV) outreach ahead of November’s election.

AVA chatbot: County Manager described AVA as an artificial‑intelligence chatbot launched in June that “pulls information only from county‑owned public data sources” and is not a learning chatbot that searches the wider internet. AVA is available at arlingtonva.us; users activate a chat bubble in the lower right corner and may ask natural language questions. The manager said AVA is mobile friendly, offers links to resources, asks for feedback (emojis showing satisfaction), and does not collect personally identifying information. Multi‑language support is in testing.

Ranked‑choice voting outreach: The County Board office announced two organizations selected to lead RCV civic education ahead of the Nov. 2025 general election where the County Board race will use RCV. Challenging Racism (a local nonpartisan nonprofit) will conduct in‑person outreach and partner locally, and FairVote (a national nonprofit) will coordinate with Rank Choice Virginia on data and outreach. The County Board office listed immediate events that day — an RCV workshop at 5:30 p.m. at 2111 Wilson Blvd and a tabling presence at a Voting Rights Act commemoration at Shirlington Library — and said early voting begins Sept. 19.

Board members asked residents to attend education events and urged the public to subscribe to county web resources for schedules and guidance.

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