Political organizer Elizabeth Ferrara of Alexandria provides voting information at a pick-up point in Lorton for door-knocking campaigns to get out the YES vote
In the special election, voters must cast their vote by April 21st. Many report confusion and conflicting political messaging and advertisements. The question: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to 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 2040 census?”
At present, Virginia’s eleven congressional districts are drawn once every ten years by the Virginia Redistricting Commission, a legislative body made up of eight legislators, and eight citizens, with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. Virginia's congressional districts were last redrawn in 2021 and would next be redrawn in 2031. However, this year the General Assembly approved a new proposed district map which would take effect only if the constitutional amendment is approved by voters.
Voting Yes
A "yes" vote would allow the General Assembly to redraw Virginia's congressional districts before the next ten-year cycle, since other states have done so. The proposed re-drawn district map would be used in the 2026 midterm Congressional elections. Then the responsibility of drawing the congressional districts in 2031 would return to the Virginia Redistricting Commission.
Who Is Urging “Yes” Votes?
Democrats Governor Abigail Spanberger and former President Barack Obama are appearing in TV ads and other messaging urging the need to counter the GOP-led redistricting in other states. The information campaign is well funded, including by Virginians for Fair Elections, and several other democratic political and social action pacts, with approximately $21 million donated.
Voting No
A "no" vote would leave the authority to draw congressional districts with the Virginia Redistricting Commission process at once a decade and Virginia's current districts would remain in place until possible readjustment in 2031, based on 2030 census data. In its first and only use following the 2020 census, the Commission failed to pass a plan, so the state supreme court justices took over, in accordance with the statute.
Who is urging “no” votes? Republicans former Governor Glen Youngkin and former Attorney General Jason Miyares, along with the Virginians for Fair Maps, a political action group directed by former Republican Congressional Representative Eric Cantor. Cantor served from 2001 until his resignation in 2014 and has donated $250,000 to the Redistricting vote campaign.
Also, an information campaign by a former Virginia state GOP delegate, used an image and July 2020 statement of former President Obama critical of gerrymandering. The use of Obama’s image suggests he is opposed to the redistricting, when in fact he supports it, leading to confusion for some voters. The ads drew criticism from the NAACP.
Other endorsements typically fall along party lines.
How many have voted so far?
Fairfax County’s Office of Elections reported that as of April 9, of the county’s 812,705 registered voters, 78,971 had cast early and absentee votes. That represents a turnout of 9.7 percent. The report suggests that mail-in voting continues to be popular with a fairly even split of 53 percent of early ballots returned by mail, versus 47 percent by early in-person voting.
Early voting ends April 18. Special Election voting day, the last day to vote, is April 21.