VIRGINIA BEACH — There has been a great deal of change in our city over the past few years. Some voters within District 1, one of the new local voting districts in Virginia Beach, in January effectively will select the third person to represent them within the four-year length of a council term.
And, whatever the Election Day result on Tuesday, Jan. 9, District 1 voters will need to do this again come November 2024.
In 2020, Jessica Abbott won a second term serving what then was the Kempsville District under the city’s former hybrid voting system. However, Abbott resigned from the seat in July 2021 due to a health issue, and Rocky Holcomb, a former state legislator, temporarily was appointed to the seat in August 2021.
After Holcomb was appointed, a federal judge ordered the city to implement a new 10-district system, and District 1, as designed by a special master appointed by the judge, includes parts of the former Kempsville District.
The new voting districts were in effect during the 2022 local elections, during which District 1 was the subject of a special election won by Holcomb.
In September, Holcomb resigned from the City Council to become sheriff, and the City Council in October petitioned the Circuit Court to order this special election. The winner would finish the remainder of a term that expires at the end of 2024.
The city essentially has adopted the 10-district system as its permanent voting system, and it is seeking a charter or general law change to that effect from the General Assembly.
Barring any changes to that plan, the District 1 seat on the council is scheduled to be on the November 2024 general election ballot.
The maps below show the former 7-4 district voting system compared to the current 10-1 district system that was used in 2022 and will be used during the special election for the District 1 seat on City Council.
Only people who live within District 1 participate in the special election in January.
Those who are unsure of what district they live in can check their registration status and other information online at the Virginia Department of Elections Citizen Portal.
According to the Virginia Beach City Charter § 3.04, “No member of the council shall be appointed to any office of profit under the city government during the term for which elected and for one year thereafter.” Deputy Sheriff N. D. “Rocky” Holcomb’s appointment as the Sheriff of Virginia Beach on September 29, 2023, the same day he resigned his City Council position, is in violation of the City Charter provision. Further, on July 27, 2022, a three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court of Appeals vacated the District Court’s remedial orders (i.e. “ordering” the implementation of a 10-1 District system) and rendered the case moot. By its own admission on its website, the City of Virginia Beach states, “…the November 2022 election will take place using the 10-1 ward district system ordered by the federal district court, even though that order has been vacated.” The City Charter has always maintained that the City is divided into seven (7) geographic districts, not ten districts. The Charter is the law, the “constitution” of Virginia Beach. The federal court order to change to a 10-1 system was vacated. The election of November 2022 and consequently the upcoming special election in January to fill the now vacant, “new” District 1 seat are lawless. The entire Holloway case, which took years winding its way through the federal court system and was the impetus for all this election confusion, has been dismissed on November 27, 2023, just a week or two ago. The City of Virginia Beach is a corrupt, lawless enterprise.