Following the approval of Virginia‘s referendum to redistrict the state in favor of Democrats, the state’s Republican Party Chairman Jeff Ryer called the wording on the ballot “blatantly dishonest.”
“I know we are disappointed by tonight’s result. Evidently, a sufficient number of Virginians trusted the blatantly dishonest language the Democrats placed on the ballot to make our Commonwealth the most severely gerrymandered state in the nation,” Ryer said.
Virginians voted to approve the state’s redistricting plan, which is likely to change the advantage Democrats have in the state’s congressional delegation from 6-5 to 10-1, by a margin of less than 100,000 votes, as of around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Voters saw the following question at the ballot box:
“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?”
Virginia Republicans had raised alarm bells about the question’s wording prior to Tuesday’s special election. Virginia’s House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, a Republican, told NPR, “Promising to ‘restore fairness’ is not neutral framing,” ahead of Election Day.
The explanation for voters did not include images of the proposed maps.
Ryer also pointed to the litigation playing out over the maps, saying the battle is now in the hands of the courts. There are three pending lawsuits playing out in the state’s court system over the redistricting move, with the oral arguments for one of the cases before the state Supreme Court set for April 27.
“Today, the referendum portion of this fight is behind us. Now, we enter the phase that will be decided through litigation. We don’t know whether the Supreme Court of Virginia will rule that the General Assembly is not above the law and does not have license to violate the Constitution. For the sake of Virginia, we will hope and pray that they do,” Ryer said.
Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned for voters to vote “no” on the referendum, called the redistricting move a “egregious power grab” after the results came in on Tuesday evening.
“The race was much closer than the left expected because Virginians know a 10-1 map is not Virginia. I urge the Virginia Supreme Court to rule against this unconstitutional process that will disenfranchise millions of Virginians,” Youngkin said.
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Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-CA) celebrated the results on Tuesday, saying Virginians responded “the right way” to President Donald Trump‘s efforts to redistrict in states like Texas.
“Virginia voters have spoken, and tonight they approved a temporary measure to push back against a President who claims he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress. Virginians watched other states go along with those demands without voter input — and we refused to let that stand. We responded the right way: at the ballot box,” Spanberger said.