April 20, 2026, 6:45 p.m.: Off on a Tangent is providing limited live coverage of today’s special election results. Polls are scheduled to close at 7:00 p.m. and results should start coming in via the Virginia Department of Elections soon after.

7:06 p.m.: Polls are beginning to close (anybody who was in line at 7:00 p.m. may vote, so it doesn’t happen precisely at the scheduled time). I expect results to start appearing on the Virginia Department of Elections systems soon.

7:27 p.m.: Results are coming in; the referendum is currently too close to call.

8:10 p.m.: With over 70% of precincts reporting, the race remains too close to call.

8:48 p.m.: Over 90% of precincts are now reported and the race is still too close to call.

8:55 p.m.: Some major media outlets—including the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ—have called the race for “yes” (that is, they believe the referendum has passed). They are probably correct, but my analysis does not yet support calling it.

9:26 p.m.: Tangent call: The redistricting referendum has passed.

• Note: There are serious questions about the legality of the referendum, which was adopted and put to a vote in a manner that violated Virginians’ civil rights to equal protection under the law. The Supreme Court of Virginia has not yet ruled on the matter.

9:45 p.m.: This concludes Off on a Tangent’s live coverage for the evening. The results will continue to update periodically and I will continue to post relevant updates (as time permits) until the Virginia State Board of Elections certifies the result.

April 29, 2026, 1:34 p.m.: The Virginia State Board of Elections plans to meet on Friday, May 1, at 1:00 p.m. for the purpose of certifying the election results. However, the Tazewell Circuit Court has issued an injunction blocking the certification. The Supreme Court of Virginia has allowed that order to stand pending its decision on the referendum’s legality.

May 1, 2026, 6:45 p.m.: The Virginia State Board of Elections met earlier today but, due to the court injunction, they did not consider or certify the results of the election. According to the board, all jurisdictions except Tazewell County, which is also under injunction, have certified their local results.

May 7, 2026, 10:43 a.m.: The Supreme Court of Virginia has not yet ruled on this matter, and the State Board of Elections remains under an injunction that prevents them from certifying the results of the election.

• The election’s enabling legislation requires the board to meet and certify the election “as soon as possible after receipt of the certified abstracts but no later than fourteen days after the day of the election.” The deadline was midnight on Tuesday, May 5, and the board is now (through no fault of their own) in violation of state law.
• The Virginia Supreme Court typically issues decisions on Thursdays. As of this writing, they have not issued any today. I urge the court to issue a decision as soon as possible and either allow the State Board of Elections to fulfill its statutory duty or invalidate the election for unconstitutionality.

May 8, 2026, 10:29 a.m.: The Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled that the process by which this amendment was adopted by the General Assembly violated the requirement that a House of Delegates election must occur between the first and second adoption. In a 4-3 decision posted this morning (PDF link), the court found that:

• “In this case, the Commonwealth submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening-election requirement in Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia. This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void. For this reason, the congressional district maps issued  . . . in 2021  . . . remain the governing maps for the upcoming 2026 congressional elections.”

10:40 a.m.: The only channel for appeals from the Supreme Court of Virginia is to take an issue to the Supreme Court of the United States. Supporters of the referendum may do so, but I think it’s unlikely that the court would even take up the case; they prefer to stay out of state-level election issues if they can.

10:48 a.m.: In light of the court’s decision, which nullifies the result of this referendum, I have removed the mark indicating that “yes” won and disabled further updates to the vote counts. I will finalize the results and close this post with appropriate notes shortly.

11:22 a.m.: This concludes Off on a Tangent’s coverage of the [now nullified] April 2026 special election referendum.