Virginia Beach residents want to keep district election system, according to study

VIRGINIA BEACH — A study of Virginia Beach’s district election system, which was implemented last year, is under scrutiny as the City Council decides whether to include a referendum on the November ballot to amend the city charter to provide for a different plan.

According to the study, 81% of survey respondents want to keep the 10-1 system, where residents of a district elect only their representative. But a majority also support a referendum to explore other election systems. Previously, three council seats were at large but residents voted for all 11 members, including the mayor.

The City Council was briefed on the survey results and public feedback June 20. Some council members felt the process was rushed and were concerned about the low number of responses.

A 10-1 district voting system to elect City Council members was put in place in 2022 after the city was sued and a federal judge deemed Virginia Beach’s at-large voting system illegal because it diluted minority voting power. But the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the ruling, finding the case was moot as a result of the passage of a state law that eliminated at-large voting for most of the City Council seats.

The ward system remained in place for the November election because it was too late to change. The 10 single-member districts included three in which minority voters formed a majority of the voting population, and three Black candidates were elected to the City Council in November. Before that, the city had two Black council members. There are now four.

To keep the current system, the City Council would need to pass a law to formally adopt it in time for the 2024 election, when several City Council seats will expire, and obtain General Assembly approval, according to Deputy City Attorney Christopher Boynton.

Shortly after the 2022 election, Mayor Bobby Dyer wanted voters to weigh in on the district system. He called for a study last fall, and some of the new council members tried to block it this year, but in a tight vote, Dyer was ultimately able to get enough support for the study to proceed.

The city contracted with Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia to hold community input sessions, conduct a survey, provide an independent review of election systems and make recommendations for Virginia Beach’s next step.

A total of 2,112 residents participated in the survey by mail and online. But of the 4,500 surveys sent to residents in each district by mail, only 623 people responded. Roughly 708 participated either in-person or virtually to the public sessions last spring.

“Results indicated that participants felt the new voting system generated positive experiences and matched their expectations, and that voters had slightly greater familiarity with the new system than the previous,” the report said. “Further, more respondents felt that the new system better represented their interests than did the previous system.”

Councilwoman Barbara Henley said she was disappointed in the amount of survey respondents and had wanted the input sessions to include public education on the election system choices.

“When it came to the survey, that might be why you’ve got low participation,” she said. “For people who didn’t know anything about the issue… were turned off to answer something they didn’t understand.”

There was more support (63%) than opposition (37%) to the city, including a referendum on the 2023 ballot to further explore local election system options, but there was significantly greater support (81%) for keeping the 10-1 system in place.

The deadline for the City Council to file a request for a referendum on the November ballot is Aug. 18. Council members Jennifer Rouse and Chris Taylor suggested the accelerated timeline for collecting feedback, in order to meet the deadline may have contributed to low responses.

“People are still asking for additional on-going educational efforts as to what we’re doing,” Taylor said.

Dyer said the next step will be more discussion at the City Council’s retreat in August.

“We took the pulse of the people,” said Dyer. “This exercise was valuable.”

Henley said she wants a referendum on the November ballot to gauge voters’ interest in alternative voting systems.

“I still think anything as important as our election system people should have input on, even if it’s just to validate the survey,” she said.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com