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We are sharing a story written by John-Henry Doucette on June 30, 2025.
Judge finds Virginia Beach City Council didn’t have the power to enact 10-district local voting system on its own
It’s a win for the plaintiffs, but it doesn't undo recent election outcomes. At issue is how we vote in future City Council and School Board elections.
John-Henry Doucette
Jun 30, 2025
VIRGINIA BEACH — A state court judge today said the City Council didn’t have authority on its own to enact a new local voting system through a redistricting ordinance in 2023, which led to conflict because the system doesn’t agree with language in the city charter.
The 10-district system has been used twice to select members of the City Council and School Board after a federal voting rights lawsuit challenged the former voting system and new state law made that old system irrelevant.
Plaintiffs in the state case, including a former council member, argued the city overstepped its power to change its system without Richmond approving new charter language. And that meant the city denied voters the ability to vote for more — though not all, as in the past — members of local bodies.
Under the former at-large voting system here, all city voters picked 11 members of the council or School Board even when the voters lived outside of one of seven residency districts. Under the 10-district system, only voters within a district determined its representation, though all help select the mayor. For the School Board, voters under the 10-district system select their district representative and one at-large, or citywide, member.
Today, Circuit Court Judge Randall Smith granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, who had argued the council didn’t have the power to effectively do away with some citywide seats guaranteed in its charter by using a redistricting measure adopted in 2023, the year after the 10-district was first in use. In 2024, the city unsuccessfully sought a charter change to codify the 10-district system.
However, the judge held off on immediately implementing remedies, and the result of an advisory referendum later this year could make the conflict moot and or at least influence what happens in the run up to the 2026 local elections.
In November, city voters will weigh in on whether they want the new system with 10 districts or a system with seven residency districts and four citywide seats. The latter method, called a modified 7-3-1 system, is favored by the plaintiffs, one of whom is Linwood Branch, an Oceanfront hotelier who served on the City Council.
“It allows the referendum to go forward,” attorney Brandan Goodwin, who represents the plaintiffs, said about the court’s direction today.
Linwood Branch, a former member of the City Council seen at right in the photograph, speaks with reporters following the decision this morning in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. With him is Brandan Goodwin, the attorney representing Branch and the plaintiffs. [John-Henry Doucette]
“You saw today that the judge’s ruling was properly correct in that there was no authority in those statutes to eliminate the at-large seats guaranteed to the citizens of Virginia Beach in the city charter,” Goodwin told reporters after the hearing. “That’s what our case is about. And now, moving forward, the city has done the right thing and is pursuing this referendum to let the citizens have a voice.”
“Every voting change that we’ve ever had in our city, beginning with the merger in 1963, the citizens of Virginia Beach have determined by referendum their voting system,” Branch said. “We broke with precedent this time, but I’m glad seven members of council are now going to get us back to having the citizens have that opportunity. It’s their vote. It’s no one else’s.”
In May, the council majority Branch mentioned voted to place a referendum on the November ballot that asks whether the method of City Council elections spelled out in the charter should “be changed from a modified 7-3-1 system to a 10-1 system.” Explanations of those differences and the exact wording of the full referendum question are available at the city website via this link.
“Right now, the 7-3-1 is in our charter, and, as we learned today, we need to follow our charter,” Branch said.
He said every citizen in Virginia Beach has lost power because fewer members of local governing bodies are answerable to them.
What if the referendum shows support for the 10-district system?
He said that would be “the will of the people.”
The Circuit Court result does not challenge the election of anyone selected during the past two local cycles under the 10-district system. Nor does it cleanly undo a series of complications that have occurred over the past few years.
City elections have seen tremendous change due to a federal voting rights lawsuit and decisions in Richmond which led to the end of the old system and, in 2024, the inability of the city to get the Youngkin administration to support the city charter language for the 10-district system — despite support in the General Assembly. The existence of the Branch litigation was a complicating factor.
“At this point, we have a situation where there’s a grant of summary judgement, but no remedy of relief granted,” Deputy City Attorney Chris Boynton told reporters following the hearing today. “It was made clear by the court that all of the council members in 2022 and 2024 were duly elected. There’s no issue of illegality as to those elections.”
Boynton said the court would hold off on ordering a remedy so the referendum could happen and the City Council can respond, such as seeking a charter change based upon its outcome. Again, the city sought such a charter change last year.
“It was a catch 22 for us,” Boynton said. “The lawsuit said we needed legislative change, and the legislative change was denied because of the lawsuit. …
“What was most important to our City Council was to let a referendum go forward,” Boynton said. “That will happen. The public will have a chance to speak, and we’ll see what comes next.”
He said the decision today means city needs legislative action or a court order to use any system other than the 7-3-1 system in the future.
Virginia Beach faces the possibility of renewed action in federal court, which led to the 10-district system first used in 2022 following opinion that found the old system was discriminatory and violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965.
That 2017 suit, known as the Holloway case, recently was reopened due to the possibility of the referendum result undoing the 10-district system. It potentially would give the federal plaintiffs additional claims.
In state court today, Smith said he may even reach out to U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson, who is overseeing the federal matter.
“However this goes,” Smith said from the bench, “it needs to be resolved.”
Updated on July 1 to share this link to WAVY-10’s coverage.
Virginia Beach Deputy City Attorney Chris Boynton speaks with WAVY-TV journalist Brett Hall this morning following the Circuit Court hearing in the Branch case. [John-Henry Doucette]
© 2025 John-Henry Doucette