From left to right: Riley Goldsmith, Fred Jordan, Doreen Dunbar, Susan Potter and Bernita Richardson. A panel of community and Virginia Beach NAACP members speak at New Jerusalem Ministries on Oct. 21, 2025. A total of 26 community members attended the event.
A legal battle over voting districts in Virginia Beach concluded on April 14, ending a multi-year saga to officially codify the 10-1 system in the city’s charter.
On Nov. 4, 2025, Virginia Beach voters saw a new question on their ballot regarding the issue: “Should the method of city council elections set forth in the Virginia Beach City Charter be changed from a modified 7-3-1 system to a 10-1 system?” A “yes” vote indicates support for the 10-1 system while a “no” vote indicates support for the 7-3-1 system.
The 10-1 voting system splits Virginia Beach into 10 districts with no at-large representatives, meaning that each district gets one representative to both the city council and school board. The 7-3-1 voting system, on the other hand, splits Virginia Beach into seven districts with three additional at-large members that can be elected. Each voting system allows one mayor. The 10-1 system is claimed to be more focused on localized representation due to its smaller district sizes.
“I’m here to tell you that at-large voting did not work for my neighborhood. I grew up off of Old Green Neck Road in the city of Virginia Beach, and our neighborhood consisted of three streets,” Virginia Beach resident Doreen Dunbar said. “There were nine houses on my street and until the late 90s, we didn’t even have our streets paved [because of it].”
What most voters do not know, though, is that Every Vote Counts, the political committee formed to advocate for the 7-3-1 system, has raised almost four times the amount of money as groups supporting the 10-1 system. The 7-3-1 system has not gone through federal compliance over the Voting Rights Act, the act that protects citizens from voting discrimination. Every Vote Counts was actively backed by the real estate and retail industry in Virginia Beach, overshadowing economic funding from smaller donors.
“The modified 7-3-1 that they’re pushing has never gone through a federal compliance ever,” coalition strategist Lisa Turner said. “We have no idea whether or not it will comply with the Voting Rights Act in terms of creating minority opportunity districts, or if it will comply.”
The history of Virginia Beach’s electoral system
The 10-1 voting system has been used in city council and school board elections since 2022 following Holloway v. City of Virginia Beach. In Holloway, the federal district court found that Virginia Beach’s old electoral system, which focused on at-large voting, violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for diluting the minority vote. While the 10-1 voting system has been in use, its main threat was that it was not fully codified yet, leaving the 7-3-1 system still available for usage.
“[Every Vote Counts] came up with this, put this issue on the ballot and now the mayor and other folks, for their own reasons, are going along with it,” Dunbar said.
A modified 7-3-1 system, if implemented, would require new district maps to be drawn in Virginia Beach to accommodate the latest system.
“What 7-3-1 allows for is potentially five [representatives] from even as small as the same street [acting] in unison,” Virginia Beach Education Association member Riley Goldsmith said. “That issue is something that’s meaningful to your community, but it might not be so important to the rest of the city.”
The 10 city council districts of Virginia Beach as seen on the City of Virginia Beach website. These 10 districts have been used since Holloway v. City of Virginia Beach.
Backing Every Vote Counts
According to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit organization that collects campaign finance data, Every Vote Counts has received $633,461 in donations since the beginning of 2025. Vote YES on 10-1 Referendum Coalition and Yes for Virginia Beach, two political committees supporting 10-1, have received $106,257 and $64,866, respectively, in the same timeframe.
When broken down by donor type, Every Vote Counts has received $294,500 from donors associated with the real estate industry and $208,500 from donors associated with the retail and service industries.
Among these numbers, top donors for Every Vote Counts include real estate agent Robert Beasley Jr. and co-founder of Shamon Hotels, the main branch host for several Oceanfront Hotels, P.C. Amin backed funding for the coalition among a plethora of other donors associated with city-oriented jobs.
Main drivers for extensive funding from these industries point to issues regarding property splits among districts. This issue was primarily seen in 2023 where the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center had a section for sale, but no council members advocated towards it as the building was split among two districts.
“If you’ve dealt with the city, they have this scorched Earth policy of ‘We’re never wrong.’ The problem with that is they’re spending our tax money to say, ‘We’re never wrong,’” attorney Susan Potter said.
Codification
On March 11, the referendum passed with 53% of voters voting “yes.” With this, the 10-1 system has received the notion to become fully solidified within the city charter. As for what this means for city residents, they will now be able to vote for 10 council members from the newly created districts and have one at-large mayor.
Despite the affirmative, the referendum still faced legal battles regarding its ability to stay in place in the future up until this point as the referendum faced the Virginia state court.
The suit went up to state court, facing both advocates for the 10-1 and 7-3-1 system for final reconsideration regarding its future usage.
“We’ve been fighting [for 10-1] in the General Assembly for years, and every single time we put something on the governor’s desk, he vetoed it,” delegate Alex Askew said.
As of April 14, the case fully established the fact that the system will now be within the city charter, indicating that the referendum’s usage will now be in place for Virginia Beach indefinitely.
“We’re making it work, even with the hundreds and thousands of dollars that they have on the other side,” Turner said.
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