Editorial
We are thankful for a state constitutional amendment in Virginia that the voters passed five years ago to put an end to the unseemly practice of gerrymandering, in which state lawmakers would draw up legislative districts to benefit the party in power.
We only have to look to the state of Texas to see how gerrymandering can be cynically used to allow legislators to choose their constituents, rather than to follow the normal process of having constituents choose their legislators. Texas Republicans, the majority party, are attempting to push a redistricting plan forward that is configured in such a way as to create an additional five GOP congressional seats.
Redistricting is ordinarily only done every 10 years following the conclusion of the U.S. Census population count. Texas Republicans are taking the unusual step of attempting to pass a mid-decade redistricting plan in order to gain a greater partisan advantage sooner. Democratic lawmakers in Texas have responded by fleeing the state so that the state legislature doesn’t have a quorum to enact the mid-decade gerrymandering. Republican state leaders have threatened arrest or expulsion of the absentee Democrats.
In a narrowly divided U.S. House of Representatives, the gerrymandering in Texas, if it is implemented, could prove decisive in determining which party is in the majority following next year’s congressional elections. However, Democrats in California, that state’s majority party, have threatened to implement their own gerrymandering plan to counteract what is transpiring in Texas.
These shenanigans to undermine the electoral will of the people represent a genuine threat to our democracy. This threat could be greatly diminished if more states would do what Virginia did to end gerrymandering. Virginia’s 2020 state constitutional amendment created a bipartisan commission comprised of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans to conduct the decennial redistricting.
Not unexpectedly, the evenlydivided commission deadlocked on a redistricting plan, throwing the process into the hands of the state supreme court. The resulting redistricting plan approved by the state’s highest court scrambled Virginia’s legislative districts but led to the creation of more compact districts that kept communities of interest together. The plan was put together without regard to where incumbent lawmakers lived or what their party affiliation was.
Many veteran lawmakers found themselves inserted into unfamiliar districts. Like other areas all across the commonwealth, the Rockbridge area was put into new districts and much of the area ultimately had different representation in Richmond. Not that we didn’t have an affinity for our former representatives but the whole process of scrambling districts proved to be a step forward for democracy in Virginia.
Yes, we are thankful for that state constitutional amendment that allowed this decidedly more democratic process. We wish other states would follow Virginia’s lead to achieve similarly positive results. Doing so would strengthen democracy in America.
