Citizens of Virginia will be voting in a special election on April 21, 2026, on a referendum to amend the Constitution of Virginia. Early voting begins on March 6.
Under Article XII, Section 1, of the state constitution, the process requires a proposed amendment to pass both houses of the General Assembly in two sessions with an intervening general election for the House of Delegates, after which it is presented to the voters in a referendum. If approved, the state constitution is modified, and the change can only be reversed by another amendment.
The Virginia General Assembly violated voters’ civil rights to equal protection under the law during the adoption and scheduling processes for this proposed amendment. The first passage occurred during (not before) the 2025 general election, so the proposed amendment cannot be considered for a second passage until after the 2027 general election. Additionally, early voting is scheduled to begin only forty-nine days after the purported second passage; the state constitution requires an interval of at least ninety days.
This referendum is therefore unconstitutional, and it is void regardless of the result. But there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court of Virginia will do the right thing and invalidate it, so I will offer my usual endorsement. I strongly encourage voters to participate so their will is reflected if the court refuses to do its duty.
Redistricting Amendment
The question appearing on the ballot is, “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?”
The question’s wording is confusing and dishonest. It’s a lie. It was designed to trick you.
Virginia’s existing congressional districts were drawn under a nonpartisan process the voters approved by a 65.7% supermajority less than six years ago. They are not “unfair,” and nothing the General Assembly is proposing here would do anything to “restore fairness.” In fact, it would do the opposite.
Virginia has eleven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives; six are currently held by Democrats (55%) and five by Republicans (45%). In the 2025 statewide gubernatorial election, Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) won 57.6% of the vote and former Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears (R) won 42.2%. The partisan alignment of our current delegation to the House of Representatives is within three percentage points of the partisan alignment of the voters in the last statewide election. That’s about as “fair” as it gets.
The Democrats in the General Assembly who proposed this off-cycle redistricting—while lying about “fairness” and illegally disenfranchising early voters—have also proposed a new district map that would likely result in ten Democratic seats (91%) and one Republican seat (9%). That would change Virginia’s delegation in the House from being only trivially misaligned with the voters to one that is more than thirty points off.
In other words, if this referendum passes—and if the Supreme Court of Virginia doesn’t invalidate the whole rotten thing—the makeup of Virginia’s congressional delegation will be more than ten times as “unfair” as it is now.
This proposal is one of the most appalling, unethical things I’ve ever seen in Virginia politics. It’s an unforgivable insult to the 65.7% of voters who endorsed creating nonpartisan, non-“gerrymandered” districts six years ago. On top of that, it went through a rushed, unconstitutional process, the ballot question is a lie, and the intended outcome is nothing more than a naked power-grab by the worst kinds of politicians—those who put party ahead of principle.
Richmond used to be immune to the kind of hateful, corrupt partisanship that has long infected Washington. I guess those days are over.
If you vote in favor of this referendum, you will be aligning yourself with its supporters in the General Assembly . . . people who voted against fairness, against proportional representation, against the rule of law, against civil rights, and against the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Is that the kind of person you want to be?
Vote NO on the redistricting amendment.
And in future elections, vote against every politician who supported it. Run every one of these shameful, power-hungry liars out of Richmond in disgrace, and never entrust them with any public office ever again.