Trial challenging Virginia Beach’s at-large council voting system begins in federal court
In Virginia Beach’s unique election system, seven of its 11 City Council members are required to live in the area they represent, yet they’re elected by voters throughout the city.
Critics of the at-large voting system say it discourages diversity and favors wealth and special interests. But efforts to change it over the years have repeatedly failed.
Now, a federal judge is being asked to decide if it should be struck down.
On Tuesday, a trial began in U.S. District Court in Norfolk in which two city residents are asking Judge Raymond Jackson to rule that Virginia Beach’s at-large system violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The trial is expected to last up to three weeks. Because of limited seating due to strict social distancing rules, a reporter from The Pilot, and even some of the attorneys assisting in the case, were not able to get into the courtroom at times on Tuesday.
Residents Latasha Holloway and Georgia Allen, who filed their lawsuit against the city in 2017, are being represented by the Washington D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. Lawyers with Virginia Beach’s city attorney’s office are arguing on behalf of the city.
The lawsuit claims the current system unlawfully dilutes minority voting strength and denies minorities an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
Black people represent 20% of Virginia Beach’s population, while whites represent 67%, according to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The city’s 11-member council has two Black members, and only five have served since the current system began in 1966.
The system was upheld as valid by the courts in 1967. But court rulings involving other cities since then, including Norfolk in 1989, have forced them to switch from at-large to district voting systems.
Virginia Beach voters have weighed in on the issue twice before. In 1994, they approved a switch to a district system, but some elected officials believed the referendum question was confusing and decided to ask them again in 1996. That time the proposed change was overwhelmingly rejected.
In July, Council member Jessica Abbott sought to have the question placed on the ballot again this year, arguing that the city’s demographics had changed a lot in the past 24 years. The proposal, however, was defeated in a 5-6 council vote.
The council members who voted no — Mayor Bobby Dyer, Vice Mayor Jim Wood, Rosemary Wilson and Barbara Henley — said they were concerned the public wouldn’t have enough time to learn about the topic with only three months to go before Election Day.
Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
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