After months of sometimes confusing commercials, mailers and political campaigning, Virginians will decide tomorrow (Tuesday) whether to allow an off-cycle redrawing of the state’s Congressional districts.
Voters will head to the polls to weigh in on a proposed constitutional amendment supporting a one-time, mid-decade redistricting process, one that would shift the current partisan balance for the House of Representatives to one where Democrats are favored in 10 of 11 districts.
If the amendment is approved — and survives legal challenges being considered by the Virginia Supreme Court — the new maps would take effect for this fall’s election cycle. Several Democrats have already launched campaigns for the proposed districts, and this year’s primary elections have been postponed from June to Aug. 4.
Through Saturday (April 18), the final day of the early voting period, approximately 179,000 voters across Fairfax City and Fairfax County cast their ballots, accounting for roughly 13% of the early vote statewide, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project.
Fairfax County Public Schools will be closed tomorrow to accommodate voting, which will take place at voters’ designated precincts. No-cost meals and enrichment activities will be provided to kids at select schools from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Voters can find their polling location online via the Virginia Department of Elections. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m.
What’s on the ballot
Voters will choose “yes” or “no” to the following 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 2030 census?
Accordingly, the proposed maps — which were approved by both the Democratic-majority General Assembly and Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger — would be in effect for the next three federal election cycles.
After the 2030 census is completed, the maps would then be redrawn by the Virginia Redistricting Commission in accordance with state law. Those maps would go into effect starting in 2032.
Under the proposed maps, Fairfax County would be split up into five different districts as follows:
- 1st District: Franconia, Hayfield, Newington, Rose Hill, Woodlawn, parts of Springfield, Bailey’s Crossroads and Lorton
- 7th District: Annandale, Burke, West Springfield, West Falls Church, Pimmit Hills
- 8th District: Groveton, Fort Hunt, Hybla Valley, Mount Vernon, parts of Fort Belvoir and Lorton
- 10th District: Chantilly, Fair Oaks, Herndon
- 11th District: Fairfax City, Great Falls, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Tysons, Vienna
Where Democrats vs. Republicans stand
As expected, the proposed redistricting plan has seen a partisan divide, with Democrats mostly in favor and Republicans mostly opposed.
Democrats argue the initiative is necessary to counterbalance partisan redistricting ushered in by Republicans in other states, like Texas, Missouri and North Carolina.
“I supported the formation of Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020, and that support has not changed,” Spanberger said in March. “What has changed is what we’re seeing in states across the country — and a President who says he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats before this year’s midterm elections.
“Virginians have the opportunity to take action in response to this extraordinary moment in history,” she added. “That’s why, as a Virginia voter, I’m voting in favor of this amendment.”
Virginia Republicans, led by former governors Glenn Youngkin and George Allen, have sharply criticized the redistricting effort.
“They’ve proposed a map that is not only, in my view, the result of a process that’s unconstitutional and illegal,” Youngkin said in Lynchburg earlier this month. “I call on our State Supreme Court to do its job and opine on it.”
Allen, who served as governor from 1994-98, challenged Spanberger to a debate on the redistricting issue — an invitation that the current governor declined.
“I hope Virginians in the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence will say no to this partisan power grab and stand up for honest fair districts in Virginia, the cradle of American liberty,” Allen told WRIC-TV in Richmond this weekend.
The Republican National Committee and Republican Party of Virginia have a pending lawsuit challenging the language of the referendum and the process Democratic state lawmakers used to get it on the ballot. The Virginia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case today (Monday).
