After the next national census, new boundaries for voting districts will be established in Virginia for all 100 House of Delegates seats, all 40 Senate seats and all 11 Virginia seats in the U. S. Congress. The Virginia Legislature will accomplish this by gerrymandering, which is a process [used] since Patrick Henry was Governor of Virginia, where legislators draw district lines to favor partisan interests.
President Regan asked for “…an end to the anti-democratic and un-American practice of gerrymandering congressional districts…” and President Obama said: “We’ve got to end the practice of drawing our…districts so that politicians can pick their voters and not the other way around…”
Current court cases and a little research reveal that the Old Dominion is one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation. Gerrymandering undermines the democratic process and is getting worse. Recent computerized mapping tools and detailed demographic data have turned gerrymandering into a powerful partisan weapon used equally by both major political parties to draw district lines to their advantage and to the other party’s disadvantage.
The result is Virginia has unfair districts that are neither compact nor contiguous, do NOT follow local boundaries, and do NOT respect minority-voting choice. One can say with some degree of certainty that in Virginia, politicians can pick their voters. It should be the other way around. Redistricting reform is urgently needed to eliminate the conflict of interest that allows General Assembly members to draw their own district maps to help certain candidates and to hinder opponents by manipulating boundaries.
A commission independent of the legislature should draw district boundaries as fair as possible in a transparent non-partisan way to include following local boundaries, having equal population, being compact and contiguous and respecting minority voting choice. Under the current process, boundaries will be drawn in the dark to favor partisan interests, ie., gerrymandered to help the party in power (or to damage the other party).
The current General Assembly session is a chance to start a process changing how voting districts are drawn in Virginia. Actually it is the last chance until 2031 because redistricting is only required after each 10-year census (unless by a court).
SJ274 is a bill (initiated by OneVirginia2021) that was jointly introduced last week by Senators Emmet Hanger (R) and Mamie Locke (D). My understanding is this bill recommends an amendment to our constitution that would establish an independent commission to establish district boundaries after the 2020 census. An amendment to the Virginia Constitution requires passage at two different legislative sessions (2 years) before it can be brought to the people for a vote. If this proposed amendment gets that far, I am certain it will pass.
We need statesmen in the legislature who will go beyond partisan politics and support amending the constitution to have districts drawn by an independent commission. Otherwise, we continue to put the fox in charge of guarding the hen house. In my opinion, anything is better than we have now.
I fully support and urge the General Assembly to end gerrymandering in Virginia. Pass the proposed constitutional amendment (SJ274) initiated by OneVirginia2021 which would establish an independent redistricting commission to determine district boundaries.
To all our General Assembly members and to our own good legislators in the NRV, Senator Edwards and Delegates Hurst and Rush, I respectfully ask that you support this legislation.
Lobby Day: On Tuesday, Feb. 5, some of us in the NRV us plan to visit the General Assembly in Richmond and advocate for fair redistricting. If interested in going/carpooling, sign up on the One Virginia2021 website, and contact me, Ben Crawford, at 540 961-5733.
- B. Crawford,
Blacksburg, VA