Sec. 1. - Election of councilmen; number, time of holding election, etc.#

The city shall be divided into seven election wards, with the qualified voters of the city who are residents of each ward electing one councilman to represent their respective ward. Elections and terms of the councilmen in each of the seven wards of the city shall be as follows:

(a) Beginning with the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2012, the qualified voters of the city who are residents of Wards 4, 5 and 6 shall elect one councilman per ward to represent their respective wards for a four-year term, with subsequent elections to be held every four years thereafter;

(b) Beginning with the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2014, the qualified voters of the city who are residents of Wards 1, 2, 3 and 7 shall elect one councilman per ward to represent their respective wards for a four-year term, with subsequent elections to be held every four years thereafter.

(Acts 1971, Ch. 144, § 1; Acts 1973, Ch. 85, § 1; Acts 1978, Ch. 39, § 1; Acts 1993, Ch. 321, § 1; Acts 2011, Ch. 797)

Editor's note— A consent judgment by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, on January 5, 1983.

"ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED: