Please pass SB814. I live in Virginia Beach. The change to 10 wards with an at-large mayor has produced a City Council that better reflects the city population. Council members are more responsive to constituents. We are a city of nearly 450,000 so an at-large seat represents five times the constituents that a Delegate has. It's no wonder that a Council person representing a tenth of that is more responsive. In all the public input forums, people preferred this ward system. It took two election cycles to complete the change and any additional changes would take another two elections which would take us to the next census. It is time to stop the finagling to resurrect at-large seats and give us a stable election system.

SB 760 - The League of Women Voters supports SB760. As we all know, the US Postal Service is not as reliable as it was in the past, particularly for deliveries in the morning hours. This simple adjustment to require delivery of the ballots to the local elections offices, from noon to 5 p.m. on the Friday after the election, will help ensure that voters’ ballots will be counted. SB 813 - By allowing a local jurisdiction to adopt an ordinance to convert one or more at-large seats of such body to single-member districts, this bill would provide the much-needed clarity to localities that are subject to court ordered establishment of single member districts. SB 1009 - The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports SB1009, which includes the expansion of ranked choice voting to any race for a local office. We believe that ranked choice voting, or RCV, would make our elections more accessible, would promote nominees with broad support, and would ensure that every voter’s voice is heard, particularly with the specific rules provided in this bill for conducting such elections. SB1174 - The League supports SB 1174, relating to referendum elections, for the same reasons that we support a prohibited zone for all election activities outside a polling location. Voters deserve this protection for all types of elections.