CHESAPEAKE, Va. — There's controversy in Chesapeake over voting locations.
City Council voted to approve four early voting locations for the upcoming November election.
However, one community center in the heart of Chesapeake’s Black community was missing from the list: Cuffee Community Center.
Several Chesapeake residents urged City Council to take another look at early voting locations.
"I am, however, very disappointed there is no satellite location covering one of our largest communities of color," said Chesapeake resident Charlotte Worley. "It smacks of racism and voter suppression."
The Chesapeake Electoral Board voted to approve four early voting satellite locations:
- Russell Memorial Library
- Indian River Library
- Major Hillard Library
- Central Library
The board swapped the Camelot Community Center for Major Hillard Library, which has been the location for the Deep Creek area in years past, with only about a mile difference. They eliminated both the Greenbriar Library and the Cuffee Community Center.
That leaves only four locations instead of the six they had last year.
"We will not stand to close different localities that will hinder others from being able to exercise their right to vote," said Chesapeake NAACP President Dr. Shirley Auguste.
The Cuffee Community Center sits in a 54% African American zip code, one of the largest in Chesapeake.
The city’s registrar Mary Lynn Pinkerman argued that location only saw 1% early voter turnout during the 2022 election, which is why they took it out.
"Certainly nothing racial even entered my mind," Pinkerman assured the council members. "I've been inundated today with racial comments. Not even a blip on the radar did I see that coming a mile away. I have criteria to look at. I have deadlines and I have the law. That's what I was looking at."
Councilwoman Dr. Ella Ward rebutted saying having a small turnout is not a good enough reason to get rid of that location.
"Because 1% turned out, well that’s 1% percent that may not turn out when it’s time to vote and they do matter."
That's something Chesapeake resident David Washington agrees with.
"That 1%, if they don't get an opportunity to vote early, they may not vote at all. So, you just denied a percentage of your taxpayers the opportunity to go vote because you're worried about a percentage."
Pinkerman also said it comes down to the cost of keeping that many locations open.
Councilman Don Carey reminded citizens they could have made their voice heard at the Electoral Board's August 1st when these locations were decided.
"The time for citizen's to let their voice be heard on where they want to have these voting locations, how often they want these voting locations or precincts to be open, the days they want these precincts to be open takes place in those meetings. Those meetings do not happen in a vacuum."
Though some citizens and council members agreed they could do a better job of advertising all city meetings, not just city council meetings.
Carey also said if they vote against the motion, they are up against a tight timeline to have any early locations at all. Any creation or removal of locations have to be decided 60 days before early voting in order to have adequate time to advertise. When council meets again, that would put them at 57 days.
"I disagree with the reason for the Cuffee Center and Camelot being moved, being taken off, but that doesn’t mean it is a racial undertone," Carey added.
In the end, City Council voted 8-1 to approve the four locations as is, once again citing the 60 day window.
Ward voted against.
Washington said he's disappointed in the outcome.
"This is about giving those communities of color the opportunity, every opportunity, to go vote," he said. "Moving forward, our focus will be in 2024, early voting. The good thing about Virginia is we vote every single year, so this issue will come back in 2024."
Auguste echoed that sentiment.
"We need to make sure all of the voices in the city of Chesapeake are heard, not just the population in certain areas."
Democrats of Virginia said in a statement, "The VA GOP leadership in Chesapeake is pursuing a course of action that will make it more difficult for Virginians to vote. The locations that the Republicans seek to eliminate are located in the heart of the Black community of Chesapeake. This action will unambiguously make it harder for Black Virginians to cast their ballot, and is unmistakably voter suppression.
The Democratic Party of Virginia is calling on the City Council of Chesapeake to abandon their plan to shutter these early voting sites and eliminate Sunday voting. As Democrats, it’s our job to make sure that the right to vote is protected for every Virginian, and that voting is easy and as secure as possible.”
Early voting in Chesapeake will run from October 23 to November 4th.