New Virginia Beach voting district map approved after city’s election system declared illegal
A federal judge approved a new voting district map for Virginia Beach to replace the at-large election system for City Council members that was previously declared illegal and discriminatory.
The new map establishes 10 voting districts across the city and will go into effect during next year’s election cycle.
Beginning in 2022, voters only will be allowed to cast ballots for council candidates in the district where they live. In the past, they were able to vote in all 10 council races and the mayor’s race. The mayor will continue to be chosen by voters throughout the city.
Although the school board was not mentioned in the ruling, it also will be affected by the new voting districts. The city’s charter states the board must follow the same election system as the council, according to Virginia Beach Deputy City Attorney Christopher Boynton.
Virginia Beach’s at-large system had been in place since 1966. Under it, seven of the city’s 10 council members had to live in the district they represented, while the other three could live anywhere in the city. Voters were allowed to cast ballots in all 10 races.
About 65% of the city’s residents are white, and opponents of the system argued it made it difficult for minority candidates to win elections. U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson agreed. He ruled in March that the city’s at-large voting system violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it diluted minorities’ voting power.
The new voting district map, which was approved Dec. 22, evenly divides the city’s population of roughly 460,000 residents, Boynton said. Each of the 10 districts is comprised of about 46,000 residents.
The new map also places each of the council’s current 10 members in separate districts, with the exception of Guy King Tower and Linwood Branch, who are now in the same district, Boynton said. If both choose to run again in 2022, they would have to face each other, he said.
Other council members up for re-election in 2022 are Barbara Henley, Louis Jones, John Moss and Aaron Rouse.
The new map was drawn by Bernard Grofman, a political science professor at the University of California at Irvine with extensive experience in redrawing voting districts. Grofman, who was chosen by Jackson to create the new maps, also created the new maps released Tuesday by the Supreme Court of Virginia that established the commonwealth’s new congressional and state legislative districts.
Jackson’s ruling was the result of a 2017 lawsuit filed by Virginia Beach resident Latasha Holloway, an African-American single mother of four who argued the city’s voting system was discriminatory. The Washington-based Campaign Legal Center later joined the case and argued on Holloway’s behalf during an October 2020 trial in federal court in Norfolk.
The General Assembly also passed a law this year that makes at-large voting systems illegal in Virginia.
While City Council is mostly OK with the new map, the majority of its members disagreed with the federal court’s determination that the city is liable in the case and must pay attorney’s fees for the other side, Boynton said.
They have decided to appeal and filed notice with the court on Monday. Boynton declined to name the council members who support the appeal, but said the group included all but about three.
Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
