VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As Virginia voters head to the polls for Primary Day, over in Virginia Beach, city council members are considering changing the way residents there cast their ballots.
On Tuesday, council members finally heard the results of a public survey on the city’s election system.
According to research from the University of Virginia’s Center for Survey Research, survey respondents overwhelmingly prefer a 10-1 voting system. A 10-1 system means residents can only vote for the candidates in their district.
Director of the Center for Survey Research Dr. Kara Fitzgibbon said the research her team conducted shows there is no significant difference in support by race, income, district, or education, although slightly more men favor the 10-1 system than women.
"There is overwhelming support among these respondents for keeping the 10-1 system. 81% indicated some level of support," Fitzgibbon said.
Gary McCollum is the head of the voter rights group Due The Right Things and vice president of the Virginia Beach branch of the NAACP. He’s long advocated for the city to keep the 10-1 system.
“What the process did is it told the city council's people what we already knew that people wanted the 10-1 system," McCollum said. “The 10-1 system in November of last year gave us the most diverse city council in the history of Virginia Beach. I’ve always said - excuse my English - ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”
Virginia Beach historically used an at-large system, meaning residents could vote for every candidate city-wide. But last November, it changed to a 10-1 system after Virginia Beach residents filed a lawsuit saying the city violated voting rights by discriminating against minority voters.
“UVA came back with a resounding result that the citizens in Virginia Beach. Want to keep the 10-1 system," McCollum said. “If you just went to the polls in November, people loved it. They were able to actually boat for the people that represent them most of the people in the whole system. They didn’t know who these folks were on the ballot.”
The survey also showed support among respondents for a referendum over an alternative voting system. Researchers touted the benefits of a ranked voting system but explained most respondents did not understand how it worked.
Mayor Bobby Dyer called the survey a “valuable exercise” because city council members can now decide on the issue after hearing from voters. He said the council now has concrete data to back up its decision.
“This was - all along for a couple years now - a very divisive subject that really split a council. Not only this one but the previous council. But once again, the idea was to put it out to the public," Dyer said. “But now we can say that the public was included in the loop and we did take the pulse of what they were thinking, what they were doing, and had the opportunity to participate.”
UVA researchers conducted the survey by mail and also through a series of in-person and virtual meetings across Virginia Beach.