VIRGINIA BEACH — A lawsuit challenging the validity of the city’s district voting system can move forward, a Circuit Court judge ruled Monday.
However, the 2024 election will continue as planned under the current ward-based system as the judge did not find evidence to support a temporary injunction requiring the city to revert back to a different voting system.
Former Councilman Linwood Branch and several other residents contend the city “illegally manipulated the Virginia Beach electoral system by eliminating three at-large seats that are expressly established under the City Charter,” and deprived the rights of voters, according to the lawsuit.
“I’m delighted that we’re going to hear this case,” said Branch by phone on Monday. “The right to vote is paramount to participating in our system of government, and the citizens never got the opportunity to be involved in that, so let’s keep moving forward.”
Former Norfolk Judge Charles Poston’s ruling dismisses the plaintiffs’ challenge of the validity of the 2022 election, and denies the plaintiffs’ request to stop the 2024 election under the current district-based system.
However, Poston’s ruling authorized a trial to determine the Virginia Voting Rights Act’s impact on the city’s election system. The trial will likely occur after the 2024 election.
“There’s some inclination that the court is inclined to lend some weight to our argument,” said Brandan Goodwin, the plaintiff’s attorney said Monday. “It’s a small victory for our clients.”
Poston wrote that the issue at hand is whether the city was permitted to remove or replace at-large districts with representative districts.
“The Virginia Voting Rights Act does not expressly provide that it modifies city charters,” Poston wrote.
Virginia Beach’s election system was overhauled after a federal judge ruled in 2021 that the city’s at-large system, which allowed residents from across the city to vote in every council race, was illegal and diluted minority voting power. The court imposed a district-based election system on Virginia Beach and appointed a special master to draw 10 new voting district maps.
The so-called 10-1 system was used in the 2022 election and included 10 districts. Representatives must live in their district and only residents who live in the district can vote for their representative. The mayor is elected at-large.
Poston added that there was no authority, except for a now-vacated 2022 federal court order, for the City Council to abolish the three at-large City Council seats.
Virginia Beach Deputy City Attorney Christopher Boynton plans to prove otherwise.
“The City looks forward to presenting additional evidence at trial as to why the Virginia Voting Rights Act compelled the City to adopt the 10-1 system,” Boynton wrote in an email Monday.
Goodwin had argued at a May hearing that state law doesn’t allow the city to take away the at-large seats defined in the charter. He had asked the court to halt an election using the 10-1 system in November, but Poston had denied that request at the May hearing and reiterated the position in his ruling Monday.
Boynton has said the 10-1 system complies with the Virginia Voting Rights Act and was the city’s only viable option.
Last year, the City Council formally adopted a redistricting plan and authorized a ward-based election system, the same method used in 2022.
But the City Charter doesn’t yet align with the election system overhaul, and an amendment requires General Assembly approval.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill in this year’s General Assembly session that would have aligned Virginia Beach’s city charter with its district-based election system, citing the pending lawsuit. Youngkin said in his veto statement that he wants the court to “adjudicate the correctness of the implementation,” and that the bill could be reintroduced at next year’s General Assembly session.
The council used to have four members, including the mayor, who were elected at large. Those four could live anywhere in the city and were elected by residents across Virginia Beach. The remaining seven members represented districts but also were elected by the population at large.
The General Assembly also approved legislation in 2022 that required candidates for city council and school board appear only on the ballots for the voters who reside within the bounds of their district.
The effects of the changes to the city’s voter system were immediately evident. The council sworn into office in 2023 was the most diverse — and possibly the youngest — in city history with four Black representatives and four members under 45.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
