THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604120292
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
For those who like simple yes or no questions, there's something right up your alley on the May 7 election ballot.
It's a ballot question that'll determine whether or not a majority of Virginia Beach voters want to stay with the present ``at large''' system of choosing City Council and School Board members or change to a ``ward'' system.
The question, drafted by City Council members, reads thusly:
Should the City Council member elected to represent a particular borough be elected by all qualified voters throughout the city (an at-large system) rather than only qualified voters residing in that particular borough (a ward system)?
If you wish to vote for all 11 council seats, vote YES! If you prefer to to vote for only five of the 11 seats vote NO!
Simple enough, but a group of local folks have gone to great lengths to change the wording on the ballot by challenging it in state courts.
So far, all their efforts have failed, including an appeal filed on their behalf by the state attorney general with the State Supreme Court. On April 4, the attorney general withdrew that appeal and the ballot question will stand as written.
Apparently, opponents figured the ballot question wasn't obscure enough to confuse people - like the first one did in 1992. That was the mother of referendum questions - couched in brass plated legal jargon and convoluted - and it passed with the approval of a fourth of the city's 169,500 registered voters. It called for: One, redistricting to form seven boroughs of roughly equal populations of about 50,000 each and, Two, to move to a ward system of electing local council and school board members.
It was one of those instances where a ``yes'' vote meant ``no,'' a ``no'' meant ``yes,'' or something like that. Hard to tell at the time.
Anyway, as a result of the election, the General Assembly in 1995 ordered the city to redistrict because it felt existing boroughs were imbalanced and failed to properly represent the residents. Blackwater, for instance, only has a population of 1,000, while Kempsville has 150,000, yet both hold equal sway on the City Council.
Rather than settling the issue of changing from an at-large to a ward system, the General Assembly tossed it back in the laps of Beach voters on May 7.
Ward system backers have pooh-poohed all calls to overturn the 1992 balloting by gravely announcing that ``the voters have spoken'' and the results are sacrosanct.
The argument was and is that the old system was too confusing and that a candidate could win in his home borough but ultimately lose the election. The volume of votes cast outside one's own borough could change the outcome and proponents claim that isn't fair.
What the ward system also would do, however, is limit every individual in Virginia Beach to five ballot choices, when he or she now has 11.
Should local folks opt for wards in May, their voting influence could abruptly shrink to half its present status, proving - through a tortuous path of logic - that less really is better. by CNB