Six counties in Virginia vote to keep Confederate monuments

Voters in six Virginia counties voted Tuesday in favor of keeping their Confederate monuments in place.

The votes, all in rural counties, were on ballot measures that are not law-binding but express voter preferences to boards of supervisors.

In four of the counties, the approval rates for keep monuments exceeded 70%.

In 2020, a Virginia House bill removed language from state law that made it illegal for local authorities to "disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials." 

The passed ballot measures require local authorities to present residents with a 30-day notice for public hearings in which officials vote on removing monuments.

They also requires officials to offer a monument to local organizations before it is removed.

"We as a board want to hear the citizens. We can hear and see what the will of the constituents is," Travis Hackworth, the county supervisor of Tazewell, one of the six Virginia counties, told a local outlet.