Officials in Vienna and other Virginia cities and towns will have to wait until at least next year before trying again to have municipal elections moved back to May, if those jurisdictions so desire.
The Election Administration Subcommittee of the House of Delegates’ Privileges and Elections Committee on Jan. 22 voted 5-3 to lay HB 345 on the table, effectively killing it for this year’s session.
Introduced by Del. W. Chad Green, HB 345 would have permitted cities or towns, by a majority vote of their governing bodies, to hold their municipal elections on the first Tuesday in May.
The decision came down to a party-line vote. Voting to lay the bill on the table were Dels. Jackie Hope Glass (D-Norfolk), Mark Sickles (D-Franconia), Michelle Lopes Maldonado (D-Prince William), Kannan Srinivasan (D-Loudoun) and Rozia Henson (D-Woodbridge); those in opposition were Dels. Robert Bloxom (R-Virginia Beach), Howard Otto Wachsmann (R-Brunswick-Sussex) and Green (R-Newport News).
The election winners’ terms would have begun July 1, so the bill made allowances for council members’ terms to be extended by six months to facilitate the transition. Following passage of a General Assembly bill in 2021, Virginia cities and towns that for many years had held their municipal elections in May had to begin holding them concurrently with the November general election, starting in 2022.
Proponents of that bill touted it as a way to boost voter turnout and save money by combining elections. But some localities, including Vienna, objected because they preferred to keep their nonpartisan municipal elections out of the partisan melee that is the November election.
After initial efforts to get the bill reversed failed, the Vienna Town Council canceled its 2022 election and extended members’ terms so all seven seats could be on the ballot in November 2023. Every seat now will be up for grabs during November in odd-numbered years.
The town’s previous May elections had featured three Council seats on the ballot each year, with the mayor’s post coming up before voters in even-numbered years. The staggered elections helped retain at least some institutional memory on the Council and prevented having all members booted simultaneously by an irked electorate. The May elections also tended to have less turnout, but those who showed up at the polls tended to be more familiar with the candidates.
Council members placed obtaining May elections high on their 2024 legislative agenda, but neither of the town’s General Assembly representatives – Del. Holly Seibold and state Sen. Saddam Salim (both D-Vienna-Tysons) – advanced bills this year to do so.
