RICHMOND — The national redistricting battle has come to Virginia and fair maps advocates are concerned about the growing trend of mid-decade redistricting.
Last month, the Virginia General Assembly passed a constitutional amendment on a party-line vote which would allow state lawmakers to redraw congressional districts. The amendment must be voted on again during next year’s legislative session before it is sent to voters for consideration.
The amendment leaves the independent redistricting commission passed in 2020 intact but gives state lawmakers the power to redraw districts mid-decade if another state does so between 2025 and 2030.
Joan Porte, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, said her organization supported the initial fair maps amendment in 2020 to give all Virginians an equal voice in elections.
“When you have the politicians making the map for their own advantage, the League is always going to be opposed to that because we’re on the side of the voters,” Porte emphasized. “The voters are the ones that should be picking, not the politicians.”
Virginia Republicans are blasting the Democratic redistricting effort as a power grab bypassing the will of voters who passed the independent commission five years ago.
Virginia is the most aggressive effort by Democrats to gerrymander outside of California, where voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure enacting new Democratic district boundaries. The new maps are projected to net the party up to five congressional seats.
Porte hopes states can get back to fair maps soon, rather than continue down a path of hyperpartisan redistricting. She wants redistricting to be done transparently with public input, protecting marginalized groups.
“We’re not thrilled with this rage by any state but in these circumstances and this environment that we’re in, it’s going to go through,” Porte acknowledged. “We just want it to be done in the most fair way.”
New maps are pending in Utah but Democratic leaders in other states, like Illinois and Maryland, have been hesitant to push through mid-decade redistricting. Republican lawmakers in Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas have already enacted new maps.
