KEY FOCUS AREA
redistricting
Virginia has the unceremonious distinction of being home to the first gerrymander in American history. Patrick Henry drew an opponent out of his Congressional district in 1788, and politicians repeated that exercise unchecked until Virginia voters approved Amendment 1 over 230 years later.
In the end, Virginia’s legislative districts were lauded by a long list of nonpartisan analysts, including the Campaign Legal Center, FiveThirtyEight, the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, who said that Virginia “has some of the fairest district maps in the country.”
But this positive end result doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to improve Virginia’s process for future redistricting cycles. The work of the inaugural Virginia Redistricting Commission was marred by partisan infighting, and there is clearly more work to be done to create a fully independent process in advance of the next redistricting cycle and beyond.
Our predecessor organization, OneVirginia2021, was one of the driving forces behind the passage of this ballot referendum, which eliminated one-party control of redistricting and created the most transparent process in the history of the Commonwealth. It was the culmination of thousands of hours of advocacy from ordinary Virginians who agreed that the status quo had been profoundly broken for generations.
From the Brennan Center for Justice: WHO PROTECTS YOUR VOTE?
court case to watch:
Moore v Harper
This session, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear this case, concerning the Independent State Legislature Theory. This theory is a dubious reading of the Constitution that would make it easier for legislators to manipulate elections and suppress votes.
Follow this case on SCOTUSblog.
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