After years of litigation, decades of community advocacy and a sustained effort by the community’s Black, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, Virginia Beach, Virginia, is officially set to conduct all future City Council elections using a “10-1” election system that ensures all voters in the city will have an equal voice in local elections.
With this election system in place, Virginia Beach’s voters will continue to have the ability to meaningfully make their voices heard in local elections.
How did we get here?
From 1966 until 2021, the city of Virginia Beach used an at-large method of elections to elect its City Council. Voting in Virginia Beach is racially polarized — white voters as a group tend to prefer different candidates than Black, Latino and AAPI voters.
As a result, the at-large method of election regularly functioned to deprive Black, Latino and AAPI voters of the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates to any of the 11 seats on the City Council. For decades, this underrepresented segment of the community advocated for the city to change to a district-based system of election.
In 2018, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) began its representation of Virginia Beach voters challenging the electoral system. In 2021, a federal court found that the city’s at-large election system violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bans policies that restrict or undermine the electoral power of voters of color.
As a result, the court ordered the adoption of a system of elections where all 10 members of the City Council are elected via single-member districts, and the mayor is elected via an at-large election — hence the “10-1 system” moniker.
The 2022 election went forward under this 10-1 system, resulting in the most diverse City Council in Virginia Beach history.
From 2022 to 2025, the question of Virginia Beach’s electoral system went down a winding path.
First, a legislative change altered the electoral system of Virginia Beach to a part at-large, part single-member district system, ending the case on the all at-large system. Then, Virginia Beach commissioned a public input process that ultimately showed 81% of Virginia Beach residents preferred the 10-1 system.
After that, the Virginia Beach City Council passed a redistricting ordinance adopting the 10-1 electoral system, and the 2024 elections went forward under the 10-1 system.
Following that election, a state court ruled that a charter change, not just a redistricting ordinance, was needed to adopt the 10-1 system, making it so the partial at-large system was set to govern future elections.
In response, CLC reopened the case on behalf of Virginia Beach voters and filed a new complaint challenging the partial at-large system for violating both the federal and Virginia voting rights acts.
A referendum was then held in which the voters of Virginia Beach voted to request that the Virginia General Assembly change Virginia Beach’s city charter to adopt the 10-1 system.
On March 9, 2026, the charter amendment adopting the 10-1 system was officially enacted in a victory for fair representation in Virginia Beach.
Campaign Legal Center is continuing the fight for fair representation.
Adopting the fair 10-1 system ends a decades-long legacy of discrimination against communities of color in how officials in Virginia’s largest city are elected, and it ensures that Black, Latino and AAPI voters in Virginia Beach continue to have the equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
Join us as we continue the fight to ensure that all voters can vote under fair electoral systems and fair maps.