Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down the state’s voter-approved congressional redistricting plan on Friday. The referendum would allow the state’s General Assembly to temporarily redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterms.
The court ruled 4-3 that the legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment referendum on the ballot.
In the ruling, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the proposed constitutional amendment was proposed to “Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening-election requirement in Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia. This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.”
For this reason, Kelsey said, “the congressional district maps issued by this Court in 2021 … remain the governing maps for the upcoming 2026 congressional elections.”
Redistricting Background
Last year, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed a proposal to amend the state constitution to redraw the district lines ahead of November’s general election.
According to the voting patterns from last year’s gubernatorial election as provided by the Virginia Public Access Project, the current districts break down as five strongly Democratic, two leaning Democratic, and one tossup. Two lean Republican and one strongly Republican.
Under the proposed redistricting map, there would be five strongly Democratic districts, along with five leaning-Democratic districts and one strongly Republican district — essentially all of Southwest Virginia.
Voting Results
The redistricting measure won by a margin of 51.4% to 48.5%, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Northern Virginia voters proved pivotal in swaying the vote. Only 38 of Virginia’s 133 combined counties and independent cities voted yes. However, those 38 included Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Loudoun, and Manassas.
Of the 1,615,171 total yes votes, Fairfax County contributed more than 262,800. A total of 115,280 in the county voted no. Loudoun County added another 88,057 yes votes, and Arlington added 65,570 more.
You can see the full redistricting map on the Virginia Department of Elections website.
Feature illustration of Virginia redistricting map showing Republication-leaning district in red and Democratic-leaning districts in blue by Mike Ramm
