CHESAPEAKE — The city’s early voting plan for the November elections eliminates two polling locations and is drawing ire from residents and Democratic Party leaders who believe the decision will make it harder to vote early — particularly in Black communities.
City Council members voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve an early voting plan that includes five early voting sites and no Sunday voting. More than a dozen residents gathered at the council meeting to express disappointment, upset by the removal of satellite voting locations at Camelot Community Center and the Clarence Cuffee Community Center, which are both located in minority communities.
“That community in Cuffee, that community in Camelot represent the heartbeat of the African American community in Chesapeake,” said resident David Washington at Tuesday’s meeting.
Last year’s early voting period used seven polling locations. Election Registrar Mary Lynn Pinkerman said the suggestion to cut the number of sites was based on turnout and early voting trends. She told The Virginian-Pilot that satellite voting locations are meant to handle the overflow of early voting at the Registrar’s Office, where most voters cast their ballots during the early voting period. She said trends suggested there wasn’t a need for as many satellite locations.
A satellite site at Greenbrier Library, which was in place for last year’s election, was also removed. Use of Camelot center near Camelot Park for last year’s early voting period was temporary, according to Pinkerman, who added that Major Hillard Library, which was not used last year, is nearby in Deep Creek about a mile away.
Pinkerman’s office and the Director of Libraries worked together to determine which public library facilities could be used as satellite voting locations.
In addition to the registrar’s office, the electoral board on Aug. 1 approved the following four satellite locations in Chesapeake:
- Major Hillard Library, 824 Old George Washington Hwy
- Russell Memorial Library, 2808 Taylor Road
- Central Library, 298 Cedar Road
- Indian River Library, 2320 Old Greenbrier Road
At Tuesday’s meeting, several residents requested city leaders add the Camelot and Cuffee community centers to the list of early voting sites, as well as at least one day of Sunday voting. Sunday voting was available in 2021 but not 2022.
Sunday voting nationwide has ties to Black churches, which often hold “souls to the polls” events after services.
Though City Council can add or remove satellite voting sites, members said they’re out of time to make any changes. Council member Don Carey said not approving the plan presented Tuesday would mean no early voting plan for the city. Per state code, early voting sites must be in place no later than 60 days prior to the election to allow sufficient time to advertise.
Chesapeake’s next City Council meeting is Sept. 12, a few days past the deadline to make changes.
The removal of the Cuffee center quickly drew rebuke from the Democratic Party of Virginia, which released a statement condemning the council’s actions.
“It is obviously disappointing and I think it’s emblematic of what’s happening across the commonwealth this year,” said Aaron Mukerjee, voter protection director for the DPV. “Republican-controlled boards are trying to make it harder to vote early.”
In Chesapeake, the electoral board includes two Republicans and one Democrat, who voted unanimously for the early voting plan at the Aug. 1 meeting, according to meeting minutes provided to The Pilot.
State law requires each city and county to have an electoral board composed of three members appointed by the chief judge of the local circuit court. Two members must belong to the political party that cast the highest number of votes for governor during the last gubernatorial election.
The Richmond Electoral Board voted last month to cut two early voting satellite locations previously used in predominately Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Richmond. Some board members said cost was the motivating factor behind the decision, but others viewed it as an act of voter suppression. The board ultimately reversed its decision earlier this month amid public outcry.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Beach Electoral Board opted at its July 18 meeting not to offer Sunday voting, as the city had the previous two years.
“After careful discussion with significant participation from citizens in attendance, Secretary (Dave) Belote moved to schedule Sunday voting on October 8 or 15,” the meeting minutes state. “The motion was not seconded, so Sunday voting will not be offered for the November 7 general election.”
Virginia Beach, however, did add an additional early voting site this year at the Kempsville Library.
Pinkerman attributed the elimination of the Cuffee center from Chesapeake’s plan to expenses and low turnout, noting elections that once cost the city $150,000 now cost $250,000. She also said turnout was as low as 1% in all of early voting last year at the Cuffee center, so “some logical decisions were made to centralize.”
“It was never intended to always maintain seven locations,” Pinkerman said at the meeting, noting expanded availability was a measure put in place during the pandemic.
Resident Jim Lang said the focus should be “equality in the opportunity to vote,” not “equality of outcomes or quotas.”
Chesapeake resident and educator Charlotte Worley said the approved plan “smacks of racism and voter suppression.”
“Chesapeake is a vibrant and diverse community. City Council’s decisions must not run this risk of making us look like some horrible Jim Crow era,” Worley said.
Shirley Auguste, acting president of Chesapeake’s chapter of the NAACP, said the commonwealth has a troubled history of voter suppression. She said older voters stand to suffer from limited access and availability of voting locations.
“Virginia is a place with a dark, insidious history of discrimination towards Black voters that spans generations,” Auguste said. “And we do not want Chesapeake to become part of that story.”
Pinkerman later said early voting plan decisions had nothing to do with race. Carey said the same.
“I disagree with the reason for the Cuffee center and Camelot being moved, being taken off, but that doesn’t mean it is a racial undertone to it,” Carey said.
But Council member Ella Ward, who voted against the plan, disagreed with the elimination of the Cuffee center due to low turnout, adding that those voters still matter.
In the last few years, early voting has been a source of contention between Democrats and Republicans nationwide. Democrats have pushed to expand the practice and promoted early and mail-in voting as a secure process that makes it easier to cast ballots. Meanwhile, many Republicans made unsubstantiated claims that it’s rife with fraud and moved to implement restrictions or audit elections. However, some GOP leaders have recently reversed course.
The Republican Party of Virginia and Gov. Glenn Youngkin — in partnership with the House and Senate Republican Caucuses — announced last month a new website, Secure Your Vote Virginia, intended to encourage Virginians to embrace early voting.
But Mukerjee said the recent actions from the electoral boards are painting a different picture.
“They are trying to win the election and then take away the right to vote,” he said. “These local boards are showing us exactly what the plan is.”
Meanwhile, Rich Anderson, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, said the GOP had nothing to do with the decision regarding the Cuffee center.
“We are not involved with decisions about any voting locations in Virginia; those decisions are made by local electoral boards and governing bodies, not by state parties,” he wrote to the Pilot. “We encountered this recently in Richmond but had no role in decisions made there for the same reason.”
At least three other cities in Hampton Roads are not anticipating any changes this year: Registrars offices for Hampton, Portsmouth and Newport News confirmed the number of early voting sites will not be reduced. Hampton and Portsmouth each only operate one early voting location and Newport News offers early voting at two sites.
The registrar for Norfolk was unavailable for comment.
Many Virginians have relied on early or absentee voting in the last few years. In the 2020 presidential election, about 60% of 4.5 million Virginia voters cast absentee ballots, according to the Virginia Department of Elections. In the 2022 general election, about 33% of 3 million Virginia voters cast absentee ballots.
All 140 seats in the state Senate and House of Delegates are up for election in November. The Republicans currently hold the House, while Democrats have a majority in the Senate.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, [email protected]
Katie King, [email protected]
