VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – The debate continues on how elections are handled in Virginia Beach. 

Gov. Glenn Youngkin thinks the charter change should wait until a pending lawsuit regarding the 10-1 system plays out in court.

“I have returned several bills to the General Assembly with amendments, hopeful that they will be reviewed with serious consideration,” Youngkin said in a March 8 news release.

Senate Bill 189, Virginia Beach, City of; amending charter, transition of city council. 

Amended to include a reenactment clause to allow for a reassessment of the legislation pending a potential resolution of the ongoing lawsuit involving Virginia Beach 

State Sen. Aaron Rouse and Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler championed legislation that would codify the 10-1 district voting system for residents to cast their vote for mayor and one of 10 council members. The system was used for the first time during the 2022 election.

“[The] system was used in the last election [and] gave us the most diverse city council in the history of Virginia Beach,” said Rev. Gary McCollum, Virginia Beach NAACP vice president III.

In January 2024, a former council member, Linwood Branch, along with Dee Oliver, Don Horsely, Steve Simpson and LaTonya Roberson, filed a lawsuit against the Resort City. The lawsuit claims that the redistricting action “unlawfully diluted their voting rights guaranteed under the Constitution of Virginia.”

Civil rights advocates, in favor of the 10-1 voting system, call the governor’s inaction merely a delay tactic.

“It’s a delaying tactic to cater to moneyed interests in Virginia Beach to take us back to an old system that has never worked,” said McCollum, who is also with Due the Right Things, a grass roots organization committed to justice and accountability. … That’s why we’re not going to be silent. We call on the legislature to continue to move forward, to give the citizens of Virginia Beach the right to choose its own representatives at the council level and at the school board level.”

Virginia Beach City Council worked with the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center to study if the election system complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The study found that the 10-1 district voting system was supported by 81% of city residents, with a 95% confidence level. Following the governor’s amendment, Virginia Beach spokesperson Tiffany Russell shared this statement with 10 On Your Side:

The City of Virginia Beach remains hopeful that the Governor will ultimately sign SB189.  This item was included in City Council’s approved legislative packet following a robust community engagement campaign where a third party, randomly sampled, statistically representative survey found that 81% of our community supports the 10-1 system. The 10-1 system complies with the Virginia Voting Rights Act, and it was successfully used in the 2022 elections. 

Said McCollum: “Why are we trying to delay the wishes, the desire of citizens of Virginia Beach? Why are we trying to suppress our ability to vote and choose who we want? This is just simply another tactic by our governor to take away the right to vote of people in our city.”

Rouse also offered a statement on the Governor’s amendment to SB189:

Governor Youngkin’s amendment to SB189 to include a reenactment clause due to ongoing legislation is unnecessary and goes against the intention of this legislation. This issue of establishing a 10-1 single-member district system in Virginia Beach has been thoroughly vetted and litigated. The pending lawsuit addressed in Gov. Youngkin’s amendment is entirely without legal or factual merit. The 2022 City Council election was administered using the 10-1 single-member district system that was ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. A federal court order takes legal precedence over any state or local laws, including a City’s Charter. Additionally, SB189 brings the city in compliance with the Virginia Voting Rights Act.

Sen. Aaron Rouse

The Virginia Beach Democratic Committee sent WAVY.com the following statement:

Governor Glenn Youngkin refuses to accept the current Senate Bill 189, which updates the City of Virginia Beach charter to a 10-1 local election system. Governor Youngkin proposes an ill-founded amendment to the bill that will cause the charter change to go into effect only for a year, requiring reenactment in 2025. The amendment to the bill can be reversed by a ⅔ vote from both the Senate and House. Senator Aaron Rouse will bring it to the General Assembly when they reconvene for a veto session on April 17th.

Youngkin’s amendment is unwarranted under the law, for three reasons. First, federal law (federal Voting Rights Act of 1965), prevails over conflicting state and local laws, including the obsolete city charter. Second, the Virginia Voting Rights Act prohibits “At Large” voting systems like those in the previous Virginia Beach city charter. Third, the City Council’s lawful decennial redistricting ordinance of August 15, 2023 remains in effect, and overrides any contrary provisions of the city charter pursuant to Va. Code § 24.2-311(E).

The Virginia Beach Democratic Committee continues to support the efforts of Senator Rouse and Delegates Kelly Fowler and Alex Askew to bring our city into alignment with federal law and the will of the people. HB 416, an identical bill, is also through the House and Senate awaiting Governor Youngkin’s signature. 

The Governor is attempting to subvert federal law, state law, our own city council and the very will of the people all at once. This is an unnecessary and unreasonable obstruction that is only being done to save face for his Republican allies and at the expense of the rule of Democracy. – Sean Monteiro, Chair of the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee.

Said McCollum: “I am still optimistic that the state is going to do the right thing because we can’t go backwards, and we won’t go backwards. The citizens of Virginia Beach have spoken and they’re going to speak again in November. They’re going to speak again in other elections. We’re not going to go backwards. Any attempt by the Governor to delay this it’s not going to work. We’re going to vote with a 10-1 system in November. And my prediction is, is that we’re going to maintain a ten one system going forward even after that.”

10 On Your Side contacted Branch, the attorney presenting the pending lawsuit and the Governor’s office, but he did not get back to us before this report.