REDISTRICTING REFORM NEEDED
Editors’ Note: This editorial was published Jan. 13 in The VirginianPilot.
The U.S. Supreme Court has confirmed that thousands of Virginia residents, particularly those in Hampton Roads, can expect to see substantial changes coming to the legislative districts that now determine their representation in the General Assembly.
The justices declined to grant a stay in a case that challenged the constitutionality of 11 House districts, six of which are located in the Tidewater region. House Republicans, who drew the districts, had asked the court to put on temporary the redrawing of those boundaries pending an appeal.
This represents the latest development in a debate over representation that began in 2011, when the General Assembly approved maps for the state House, state Senate and U.S. House districts. In the years since, the districts have faced numerous legal challenges, arguing they were drawn in ways that inhibit minority representation or maximize partisan advantage.
Last summer, a panel of judges from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia concluded the 11 House districts were racially gerrymandered, engineered to concentrate black voters and thereby violating those voters’ constitutional right to equal representation.
The judicial panel ordered that the districts be redrawn, an effort that will inevitably affect adjacent districts. The General Assembly, charged with that duty, was unable to reach agreement, leading to the appointment of Bernard Grofman, a political scientist at the University of California at Irvine, as “special master” to oversee the redistricting process.
In December, Grofman released a 131-page proposal for drawing new districts — the action Republicans sought to stop with the appeal turned aside by the Supreme Court this week. All told, as many as 26 House districts in Hampton Roads and the Richmond area could be significantly altered when the new maps are put in place.
If that strikes Virginians as a convoluted, haphazard and rather undemocratic process ... well, it probably should.
Lawmakers, elected by the people of the commonwealth, are tasked with the drawing of district lines and determining who representation should be fairly distributed. Surely the birthplace of Washington, Jefferson and Madison shouldn’t need the services of a California professor to do so in a manner that comports with the Constitution.
Trouble is, the honorable men and women who populate the assembly continue to prove entirely untrustworthy when it comes to carrying this particular duty. Every 10 years, following the decennial census, they gather away from the public’s prying eyes to draft maps that serve themselves, not Virginia’s best interests.
This includes drawing lines that protect those in power, that marginalize minority voters, that divide communities or regions, that maximize partisan advantage or otherwise subvert the democratic process toward personal and political gain.
With steady advances in software that uses statistical data to aid in creating those maps, parties can draw lines that produce districts that deliver specific electoral outcomes. It’s not quite election-rigging, but it certainly means that the playing field isn’t level when voters head to the polls.
Ultimately the process sees officials selecting their constituents, rather than the other way around.
By drawing “safe” districts, it discourages participation in elections, because why should citizens vote when the outcome is preordained? And it deters cooperation in lawmaking, since officials are more likely to be punished by ideological partisans for compromising. Ask former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor about that.
Virginia Republicans were in power when last Richmond carried out this task, but they did their work with the complicity of some Democratic officeholders in the U.S. House, who capitulated in order to protect their seats.
And had Democrats been in the catbird seat, rest assured they too would have leveraged the opportunity to the fullest as their opponents did. History shows their eagerness to do so when they held sway in the legislature.
What’s needed is comprehensive, institutional reform that puts specific guidelines on the process and removes it from partisan influence, recognizing that’s the best way to ensure more accurate and equitable representation for all Virginians.
Fortunately, there’s a proposal in Richmond to accomplish just that.
In November, the nonpartisan, grassroots OneVirginia2021, a redistricting reform advocacy group, put forth a constitutional amendment that would accomplish most of those goals. It would create a process for selecting an independent commission, in which would be vested responsibility for producing the legislative maps.
It also sets forth specific requirements for drawing districts, to protect the rights of citizens but also to try to create geographic cohesion with each district. It discourages the division of communities as far as is practical, and seeks to respect natural boundaries, such as waterways.
The measure has the support of numerous former lawmakers, officials and scholars from across the partisan spectrum, as well as that of Democrats in the legislature and Gov. Ralph Northam. Republicans have been more noncommittal but there are plenty in GOP who recognize the benefit of a more transparent, independent system in Virginia.
The wild card, for now, is the lawsuits winding their way through the court system, not only those emerging from Virginia but those affecting neighboring Maryland and North Carolina as well.
The Republican appeal to the decision that Virginia’s House districts constitute a racial gerrymander is the most important case affecting the commonwealth. But lawsuits challenging Maryland and North Carolina districts as being excessively partisan will resonate here as well.
Some legal scholars have speculated the U.S. Supreme Court could decide in this term the constitutionality of independent redistricting commissions, such as the one proposed in this amendment. But Virginia cannot afford to put its progress on hold to wait for that decision.
No, the time for redistricting reform is now. Lawmakers should pass this amendment and impart more transparency, accountability and fairness into this process, ensuring better and more accurate representation for citizens across the commonwealth.