Ed. — This is a developing story and will be updated.
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE
VIRGINIA BEACH — A federal appeals court today sided with the city of Virginia Beach’s position that a voting rights suit against the city was moot after a change to state law ended Virginia Beach’s former local elections system before a judge decided to do so.
Two of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, panel agreed with the city position and vacated a decision that upended local politics this past year, marking what is likely the greatest governmental change in the city in decades.
However, the panel, while vacating the decision, sent the matter back to the district court that originally found Virginia Beach’s former at-large voting system violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act and discriminated against minority voters. The plaintiffs may have additional arguments and amend their complaint, the appeals court found, and could pursue that with the district court.
The city has denied its former system was discriminatory while acknowledging it could no longer be used. Oral arguments in the appeal were heard in March.
This is a developing story, but there is no indication yet the decision will change this year’s local elections, in which candidates have already filed to run in several local races under the system ordered into existence by the federal district court. The city, while pursuing its appeal, has been working to communicate the changed voting system to its citizens.
“At this point, the city is actively working to implement the 10-1 system ordered by the district court,” Deputy City Attorney Chris Boynton said during an interview this morning, “and my expectation is the election will continue under that system.”
The federal judge in December ordered the new 10-district voting system into effect, and that system is in use this year in local City Council and School Board elections.
However, before U.S. District Court Raymond A. Jackson decided against the city, a bill introduced by state Del. Kelly Fowler, D-Virginia Beach, essentially ended the city’s former system because people living outside of a voting district could no longer help determine representation for the district, a controversial element of the old system.
The Fowler bill was approved by the General Assembly and signed into law.
Fourth Circuit Judge Pamela Harris wrote, “Before the district court ruled on the claim … Virginia’s General Assembly passed a law eliminating at-large voting for most of the seats on the City Council.” The appeals court majority found Jackson “erred” in saying the claim in the plaintiff’s case was not moot, and it vacated the decision.
“The General Assembly’s action left the plaintiffs challenging — and the district court assessing — an electoral system that no longer governs elections in Virginia Beach,” Harris wrote in the opinion.
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