The vote will likely flip four out of the five GOP congressional districts in the state, taking the 6-5 Democrat-seat advantage in Congress to 10-1.
The Virginia referendum measure to redistrict the state congressional boundaries, pushed by Democrats and Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, has passed, which will likely flip four out of the five GOP congressional districts in the state, taking the 6-5 Democrat-seat advantage in Congress to 10-1.
The measure passed on Tuesday night at around 9 pm with 50.7 percent yes votes to 49.3 percent no votes with votes still coming in, per the AP.
Polling leading up to election day was tight after Democrats in Richmond pushed for the ballot measure seeking to flip four out of five Republican congressional seats in the state. The map, as proposed by Democratic lawmakers in Richmond, rejiggered the borders of the districts to stretch up to northern Virginia but then also reach down into the southern and central portions of the state.
Spanberger had pushed for the redistricting effort after saying that she had "no plans" to redistrict in the state during her campaign. After campaigning as a moderate and also winning the state by around 15 points, Spanberger has dropped in polling to be the least popular Virginia governor over the last several decades at this point in her term at the same as when she has been pushing the measure.
The map proposed by the Democrats in the legislature has been slammed by conservatives online, showing that one gerrymandered district looks like it is in the shape of a lobster.
https://twitter.com/MattWhitlock/status/2046235762559995966?s=20
Ahead of the results, one Obama-turned-Trump voter said that "if this referendum passes, those people are just going to be forgotten," in reference to rural voters in southern Virginia. The text of the ballot question was also slammed online ahead of the vote, with some saying that it violated Virginia's laws.
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2046680057452900808?s=20
"Democrats' redistricting proposal in Virginia is VIOLATING State Law 30-19.10, which requires amendment proposals to use a "neutral explanation." This gerrymandering attempt clearly violates this law by framing the Democrat proposal as "restoring fairness" in elections," X account Libs of TikTok said, citing Virginia statute.
The text of the ballot measure asked voter to answer "yes" or "no" to the following: "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?"
Although the ballot question says that the measure will "restore fairness," the congressional map in Virgina is pretty close to perfect for how it represents the voters in the state. With the state's current six to five seats, Democrats have around 55 percent of the representation in Congress. In th 2024 election, Kamala Harris won the state with 52 percent of the votes, a close match to how the state is represented in the House of Representatives.
The Daily Wire's investigative reporter, Luke Rosiak, noted, "Virginia currently has mathematically perfect fair congressional maps - 55% of the seats and 52% of the popular vote. Close to parity as you can get with 11 seats."
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