New Virginia Law Ends Challenge to City’s At-Large Voting System

A Voting Rights Act challenge to the at-large procedures Virginia Beach, Va., used for city council elections was rendered moot when the state legislature adopted a law eliminating most of the at-large seats, the Fourth Circuit said Wednesday.

Virginia Beach has a 10-member council. All the seats were elected at large, which meant that every candidate had to campaign in the whole city to be elected, but seven of the 10 members had to live in designated districts.

A Black voter and a unsuccessful Black candidate for the council sought a declaration that “the current” system violated the VRA, which ...