With the Virginia General Assembly (Democrats, that is) having passed the constitutional amendment on mid-decade redistricting – in response to Trump attempting to rig the midterms by pressuring “red” states like Texas to gerrymander Democrats into oblivion – Virginia voters will be going to the polls to decide whether they want to move ahead with this or not. And now, we’re getting more details on when that referendum will be, what the language will look like, and hopefully soon, what the new district maps might look like. See below for what we found out this morning.
- First, here’s a link to HB1384 (Del. Luke Torian), “A BILL to provide for the submission to the voters of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Virginia.” As you can see, the proposed date for the referendum is April 21, 2026 (of course, there’s 45 days of early voting, so that should start around March 7 or so?).
- Also, note the language that is being proposed for the voter referendum:
“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?”
And no, as Sam Shirazi points out, Virginia Republicans won’t be happy with that language – even though it’s 100% accurate – but what can they do about it? Challenge it in court, presumably…but again, the language is 100% accurate, so what’s the legal problem exactly?
Anyway, now we mostly just need to see the proposed new district maps, which supposedly is going to happen by January 30 – just eight days from now. And then, it’s off to the races, in terms of the pro-amendment and anti-amendment forces gearing up their campaigns to pass it (hopefully) or reject it. That is, of course, unless the court(s) intervene and stop the whole thing; hopefully, they’ll leave it to the voters, though.
