Two courts were watching when state lawmakers passed bills related to the 10-district voting system in Virginia Beach and codified it in the city charter last month.
Now the legal matters are done.
The courts had been awaiting legislative action after 53.4% of city voters in November favored the 10-1 system over a modified version of the city’s former 7-3-1 voting system.
“We’re just happy that the various disputes over the city’s election system have now been resolved, and we look forward to an orderly 2026 election,” Deputy City Attorney Chris Boynton said Wednesday.
One suit was in state court, where plaintiffs challenged the 10-1 system that’s been used since 2022, though it was never in the charter. They wanted to preserve more of the at-large seats that were part of the old system.
Last year, Circuit Court Judge Randall D. Smith agreed the city erred by using the 10-1 system without the charter change. On April 7, Smith vacated his order as moot and dismissed the suit.
The other case was in federal court, where a voting rights lawsuit led to the 10-1 system after U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson found the old system denied minority voters the right to elect candidates of their choice.
Plaintiffs more recently fought to keep the system in use amid uncertainty about its future.
On Tuesday, they ended their case because the system is in the city charter.
The General Assembly action was “irrefutably a lawful change to the system of election to reflect the will of Virginia Beach’s voters,” said Simone Leeper, senior legal counsel for redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center, which represented the plaintiffs.
Latasha Holloway was the initial plaintiff in the federal lawsuit. On Wednesday, she told WHRO she’s thrilled the 10-1 system is in place permanently.
“Our city has already benefited,” Holloway said. “We’ve seen that the people’s voice matters and it counts now. … I know we’re never going back to a time that people felt their vote didn’t matter. The 10-1 system is a foundation on which we can build a better city.”
