Gerrymandering/Redistricting

The Virginia House of Delegates today approved Senate Joint Resolution 18, a proposed constitutional amendment creating a nonpartisan Redistricting Commission to draw district lines after each Census. Voters will decide in November whether to adopt the amendment.

Democracy reform, driven by the people, is on the march in states and municipalities across the nation where scores of pro-democracy reforms have been enacted. But democracy reform remains stalled in the U.S. Senate where the Republican majority ignores the will of the people. Sunday will mark one year since the U.S. House of Representatives passed its sweeping and transformative package of pro-democracy reforms in the For the People Act, or H.R. 1.

The Virginia Legislature is one step away from sending a proposed Constitutional amendment to the voters in November. The redistricting reform measure was passed by the previous Legislature in 2019, and passed by the Senate last month, with strong bipartisan support. It was reported favorably by the House Committee earlier this week, but has not yet received a floor vote. If the House of Delegates does not pass the measure before adjourning this week, the proposed amendment will not go to voters.

Virginia voters may soon have an opportunity to adopt redistricting reform. The House of Delegates is considering final approval of a proposed state Constitutional amendment, which would create a bipartisan Redistricting Commission.

The South is "ground zero for this fight," said Dan Vicuña, a redistricting expert at Common Cause. Vicuña said the Supreme Court's decision has put in place a "new legal playing field" for partisan gerrymandering and lawmakers can be expected to try to take advantage of that when they are drawing the House maps. "You'll see kind of more blatant partisanship," he told NBC News.

In 2008, I led efforts to fundamentally change California’s redistricting process. With an unusual coalition of left, right and center allies, we created the nation’s first independent citizens redistricting commission. The power to draw voting maps was taken from politicians and given to people like you and me. Today our redistricting process is independent and community-led with the goal of keeping communities together in the new maps. No longer behind closed doors, drawing voting lines is conducted openly and transparently.