VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The 10-1 voting system, or district voting is here to stay in Virginia Beach.
On Tuesday, Virginia Beach City Council members voted 10-1 to formally adopt district voting after debuting it in the 2022 election cycle. A 10-1 system means residents can only vote for the candidates in their district.
City Councilwoman, Barbara Henley, was the only city council member to vote against the motion. In a phone call, Henley told 13News Now she voted against district voting because she believed the decision should be left to a referendum.
Several Virginia Beach residents agreed with Henley, and went to the city hall meeting to voice their displeasure with the decision.
"The citizens of Virginia Beach must be allowed to pick the voting system they prefer! There must be a referendum," said one speaker who addressed city council.
However, city council members said they listened to public input for months.
The city held several meetings and requested opinions from Virginia Beach residents for several months as they gathered information about what the next steps would be for the city's voting system.
Surveys showed an overwhelming amount of Virginia Beach residents were in favor of keeping district voting.
"What happens in Kempsville should not be impacting Chick's Beach," said one Virginia Beach man. "I think Virginia Beach is big enough that it should be kept separate."
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.
Chris Boynton, Deputy City Attorney for Virginia Beach, said leaders had no choice but to move forward with the 10-1 system because of the federal court order, even though the district voting system is not a part of the city's charter.
"There was no going back even after the federal appeals court in July which vacated that order, the 10-1 system was already baked into the cake so to speak," said Boynton.
Now that the 10-1 system has been formally adopted, city leaders will now have to get approval from the Virginia General Assembly to change the charter, or to propose a new state law.