Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

South Riding Board of Directors, 2026

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South Riding Proprietary

The South Riding Proprietary is a homeowners’ association (HOA) that acts as a de facto local government for the South Riding community in Loudoun County, Virginia. At the proprietary’s annual meeting on May 19, 2026, three of the seven seats on the Board of Directors are up for election. Members of the board serve three year terms. South Riding property owners may cast their votes by attending the annual meeting in person, by mailing a paper ballot, or with a mailed PIN on Votegrity.net.

The three directors at the end of their terms are Michael Beardslee, Marilyn Gardner, and Mark Pontello. Beardslee and Gardner are seeking reelection, and are joined on the ballot by Karen MacDowell and Robert Greene. Property owners may vote for up to three candidates, and have the option to write-in other candidates.

Under the Proprietary’s bylaws, at least ten percent of South Riding property owners must cast votes to achieve a quorum. If a quorum is not achieved, the Board of Directors cannot seat new members or perform work, and the meeting will be recessed for up to a month. When the meeting resumes, the quorum requirement drops to five percent. If a quorum is still not achieved, the meeting may be repeatedly recessed and resumed until reaching the five percent threshold.

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Back in January, Melissa and I went on a seven-day cruise to the eastern Caribbean. First we spent a few days in San Juan, Puerto Rico, then we boarded the Norwegian Epic for a journey to the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten and Saint Martin, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It was a good thing that we decided to spend that time in San Juan before the cruise, because that meant we were already in Puerto Rico before the airspace shut down for U.S. military operations in Venezuela. Unfortunately a lot of people missed the cruise—I heard rumors that more than a thousand of the expected passengers didn’t make it.

Anyway, this trip was mostly for relaxing. I didn’t take my “real” camera, so all these photos are from my phone, and I didn’t even take pictures of everything  . . . but I still wanted to share the ones I did take. It was a good time.

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Virginia Statewide Ballot Issue, Special, 2026

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Seal of Virginia

Citizens of Virginia will be voting in a special election on April 21, 2026, on a referendum to amend the Constitution of Virginia. Early voting begins on March 6.

Under Article XII, Section 1, of the state constitution, the process requires a proposed amendment to pass both houses of the General Assembly in two sessions with an intervening general election for the House of Delegates, after which it is presented to the voters in a referendum. If approved, the state constitution is modified, and the change can only be reversed by another amendment.

The Virginia General Assembly violated voters’ civil rights to equal protection under the law during the adoption and scheduling processes for this proposed amendment. The first passage occurred during (not before) the 2025 general election, so the proposed amendment cannot be considered for a second passage until after the 2027 general election. Additionally, early voting is scheduled to begin only forty-nine days after the purported second passage; the state constitution requires an interval of at least ninety days.

This referendum is therefore unconstitutional, and it is void regardless of the result. But there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court of Virginia will do the right thing and invalidate it, so I will offer my usual endorsement. I strongly encourage voters to participate so their will is reflected if the court refuses to do its duty.

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Hyundai Santa Fe
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There have been a handful of changes to the list of ugly cars for 2026. Two longstanding models have gone on to the great junkyard in the sky: the BMW X4 and the Kia Soul. The redesigned Kia Sportage makes its debut appearance, and the Hyundai Santa Cruz climbs back into the last spot (after being pushed off the bottom last year).

As I’ve been saying for several years, the auto industry is currently in a bland phase. There aren’t many truly ugly cars, but there are plenty of uninteresting, boring, unattractive ones. That means some of the entrants near the bottom of this list aren’t that ugly. That doesn’t mean they look good though.

To qualify for this list, a car must be sold in volume to the general public in the United States. Volume is defined subjectively based on my observations (if I see them on the roads, they qualify; if I don’t, they don’t). Vehicles are excluded if they are not sold new in North America, sell in very low volume, or are sold only for exotic, military, commercial, or other special purposes.

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VPAP
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The Virginia General Assembly has proposed an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia that would, according to the proposed ballot question, “allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.” It is scheduled to be put to a statewide referendum in a special election on April 21.

Between the unusual scheduling in a special election (instead of a general election) and the false claim embedded in the question itself (that Virginia’s existing congressional districts, which were drawn under a nonpartisan process the voters overwhelmingly approved six years ago, are “unfair”), it’s pretty clear that this is a transparently political attempt by Democrats in the General Assembly to redraw districts for the party’s benefit  . . . but that’s a topic for another day. The amendment is being challenged on several legal fronts and there are serious constitutional issues involved. The Supreme Court of Virginia has allowed it to go forward for now, but has not yet ruled on its constitutionality.

This article is only about the process by which this amendment got passed and scheduled. I will publish a detailed analysis and endorsement article about the referendum itself closer to the election. (Update, March 4, 2026: See Virginia Statewide Ballot Issue, Special, 2026.)

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Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.