Virginia Beach Voter Registrar's Office Moves
The Virginia Beach Voter Registrar's Office has moved to a new location at 500 Studio Drive. The new office, located near Mount Trashmore Park, is now open to the public.
The relocation of the Virginia Beach Voter Registrar's Office was prompted by a March 2023 report from the City of Virginia Beach Internal Auditor's Office, which concluded that the previous office space was "inadequate for efficient operations." The audit highlighted that the staff was dispersed across four different buildings, leading to logistical inefficiencies and significant delays during the submission of ballots. Previously, the registrar's main operations were in Building 14 of the Municipal Center, with a separate 10,000-square-foot warehouse on Central Drive for storing election equipment. During the November 2022 election, the Building 14 early voting site served an average of 530 voters daily, using just seven voting booths in the lobby and accommodating only eight people waiting in a hallway. To address these issues, the Virginia Beach City Council voted on February 20, 2024, to authorize the purchase and renovation of the new facility at 500 Studio Drive. An ordinance for the "Voter Registrar Facility" established a capital project with a total appropriation of $17,250,000 for the acquisition and buildout of the new office. The funding for the new facility was sourced from multiple city funds. This included $11.5 million from the General Fund Debt Service, $3,188,258 from the General Fund Balance, and $2,561,742 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) appropriation. The new, purpose-designed facility is intended to improve access for voters, particularly for curbside, early in-person, and mail-in voting. Virginia Beach's Director of Elections, Christine Lewis, stated the move will also allow the office to "securely consolidate our voting hardware and ballots, ensuring that our elections remain safe and secure." All election-related services, including early voting, voter registration, and candidate filing, will now be conducted exclusively at the 500 Studio Drive location. The registrar's office will no longer maintain any presence at its former Municipal Center location.
