Redistricting in Virginia after the 2010 census

in Virginia

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Note: Redistricting takes place every 10 years after completion of the United States Census. The information here pertains to the 2010 redistricting process. For information on more recent redistricting developments, see this article.

Redistricting in Virginia

General information

Partisan control: Alaska

Process: Legislative Authority

Deadline: Second quarter of 2011 for State legislative districts, third quarter of 2011 for Congressional seats

Total seats

Congress: 11

State Senate: 40

State House: 100

This article details the timeline of redistricting events in Virginia following the 2010 census. It also provides contextual information about the redistricting process and census information.

Process

See also: State-by-state redistricting procedures

During the 2010 redistricting cycle, the Virginia General Assembly proposed and passed redistricting plans as ordinary legislation. The Governor had the authority to veto the legislation.

The Virginia Constitution provided authority to the General Assembly for redistricting in Section 5 of Article VII.

Leadership

Joint Reapportionment Committee Membership

Independent Bipartisan Advisory Commission

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on January 9, 2011, that an independent commission would oversee the process of redrawing Virginia's congressional and legislative boundaries.^[1]. The Governor issued an executive order creating the commission along with naming the 11 members that would oversee the process. The commission consisted of judges, government officials, and former officeholders who had not held office for at least five years.^[1][2]

The members of the commission were:

• Bob Holsworth, (Chairman) Managing Partner of DecideSmart and founder of the website VirginiaTomorrow.com
• Gary Baise, Principal, Olsson Frank Weeda
• Viola Baskerville, Fmr. Member, Virginia House of Delegates; Fmr. Virginia Secretary of Administration
• Barry DuVal, President, Virginia Chamber of Commerce; Fmr. Mayor of Newport News; Fmr. Secretary of Commerce and Trade
• Jim Dyke, Partner, McGuireWoods; Fmr. Secretary of Education; Fmr. Chair, Greater Washington Board of Trade
• Jean Jensen, Former Secretary, State Board of Elections; Former Executive Director, Democratic Party of Virginia
• Sam Johnston, Fmr. Judge, 24th Judicial Circuit
• Walt Kelley, Fmr. Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
• Sean O'Brien, Executive Director, Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montepelier
• Cameron Quinn, Fmr. Secretary, State Board of Elections
• Ashley Taylor, Partner, Troutman Sanders; Fmr. Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights^[3]

The commission held four public meetings around the state to gain public input on redistricting. The four meetings were:^[2][4]

• March 11th: Capitol Building
• March 14th: Virginia Western Community College
• March 15th: George Mason University
• March 21st: Norfolk State University

Census results

Virginia remained at 11 congressional districts for the 2010 Census.^[5] The ideal congressional district size as a result of the census was 730,703 constituents.^[6]

The U.S. Census Bureau delivered local population data to Virginia on February 3, 2011.^[7] The five most populous cities in Virginia were Virginia Beach at 437,994, Norfolk at 242,803, Chesapeake at 222,209, Richmond at 204,214, and Newport News at 180,719.^[7] Since the 2000 Census, Virginia Beach grew by 3 percent, Norfolk grew by 3.6 percent, Chesapeake grew by 11.6 percent, Richmond grew by 3.2 percent, and Newport News grew by 0.3 percent.^[7]

The Virginia General Assembly used this local census data during a special session on redistricting in April 2011.^[8]

Adjusted figures

In late February 2011, The Census Bureau announced adjusted population counts for Virginia. An error had placed 19,279 sailors stationed at the Norfolk Naval Station in West Ghent, a neighborhood of Norfolk. According to the erroneous figures, the area had an 8,300% increase in population and each home in West Ghent contained over 200 people. The error, noticed earlier in the month, did not affect Norfolk's overall population.^[9] However, the mistake could have significantly affected state-level redistricting since the Norfolk Naval Station and West Ghent resided in different state legislative districts.^[10]

Congressional redistricting

February 2011: Rose Institute redistricting report

The Rose Institute of State and Local Government issued a detailed report on how legislative districts may be redrawn in Virginia. The report said that increasing population in Northern Virginia may have threatened seats held by Republicans. The report concluded that Districts 1, 4, 6, 7, and 9 would remain strongly Republican and Districts 3 and 8 would remain strongly Democratic. Districts 10 and 11 would likely remain Republican and Democratic, respectively, since gerrymandering District 11 could have resulted in weaker Republican control of District 10. Districts 2 and 5, predicted the report, would be the most contentious because of their reputation as swing districts.^[11]

One possible congressional redistricting scenario mentioned by the report was that Republicans could redraw the 5th Congressional district to their benefit by not including Albemarle County.^[12] Albemarle County was the home of former Congressman Tom Perriello.^[12] The report said that it could be harder for Perriello to run again if his home county was no longer included in the 5th Congressional district.^[12][13]

March 2011: Incumbents propose congressional maps

Media reports suggested that Virginia's congressional delegation was unanimously backing a redistricting plan that would preserve the 8-3 Republican majority by redrawing districts in favor of House incumbents. The plan gained support from the minority members of the delegation by preserving their districts, districts which Republicans could have attempted to weaken.^[14] The reported plan was criticized the Virginia League of Women Voters. The President Olga Hernandez called the plan "partisan gerrymandering at its worst." The plan also drew criticism from the Virginia Redistricting Coalition whose member groups included AARP Virginia, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Virginia Chamber of Commerce.^[15]

March 2011: Legislature accelerates process

Virginia lawmakers approved the new legislative map more quickly than first expected. The Senate introduced its plan on March 29, 2011, with the House and Senate redistricting committees holding public hearings on March 31 and April 2. The special session to consider redistricting began on April 4.^[16]

April 2011: Possible congressional maps emerge

Possible congressional redistricting plans emerged in the Virginia State Legislature in early April 2011. The first plan, submitted by Bill Janis (R), was similar to the incumbent-friendly maps supported by the congressional delegation that preserved the 8-3 Republican advantage.^[17][14] However, Senate Democrats had released their own congressional proposal, which differed significantly from Janis' map. The Senate and House maps differed primarily on their plan for the state's mandatory majority-minority district. The Republican plan attempted to boost the minority population in the existing majority-minority district, increasing the percentage of Black voters from 53% to 56% in the 3rd District. The Democratic plan reduced the percentage of Black voters in District 3 from 53% to 42%, while increasing the percentage in Republican-held District 4 from 33% to 51%.^[18]

April 2011: House approves congressional maps, adjourns

On April 12, 2011 the Virginia House of Delegates passed Janis' plan by a 71-23 vote. Senate Democrats, however, their own plan out of committee. Before the Senate took a final vote, legislators agreed to break from the process and return before the end of the month.^[19][20]

June 2011: Chambers reconvene, pass competing plans

On June 9, 2011, the Virginia State Senate and Virginia House of Delegates approved competing redistricting plans. The chief area of disagreement continued to be the creation of minority-majority districts. The Democrat-drawn Senate plan would have created one 51% majority minority district and transformed the state's existing majority-minority district into a 42% minority influence district. The Republican-drawn house plan would have preserved the majority-minority district with a 56% African American majority. The City of Roanoke had also been a point of contention, with lawmakers debating over whether to place it in 6th or 9th Congressional District. A conference committee was created to negotiate a compromise plan.^[21][22]

• The Senate plan can be found here.
• The House plan can be found here.

The members of the conference committee were:

July 2011: McDonnell urges action

After six weeks since the appointment of the conference committee and over six months in session, the Virginia General Assembly had yet to reach final decisions on Congressional redistricting and judicial appointments. In a letter dated July 21, 2011, Gov. Bob McDonnell urged lawmakers to take swift action to finish business and adjourn. McDonnell asked the General Assembly to either elect judges or adjourn so that McDonnell could appoint replacements. He noted that there were no meetings scheduled and no plan set forth for completing Congressional redistricting. Asked about the delays, House leadership blamed the Senate for refusing to discuss the plan. When Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw was asked, he replied, "We’re back when we’re back. That’s all we can say."^[23] As of August 2, the conference committee had not yet met in full.^[24]

• The full letter can be found here.

November 2011: After election, GOP delayed until January

A new Congressional map was not completed during the 2011 session. Republicans gained control of the Senate in the state’s 2011 elections. Following the election, Republicans decided to delay redistricting until the new senators took office in January 2012.^[25][26][27]

January 2012: House approves maps

On January 13, 2012, the House redistricting committee revived and approved 2011's redistricting bill. The full House approved the plan by a 74-21 vote and the Senate was expected to consider the bill in the week that followed.^[28]

• An interactive version of the plan can be found here.

January 2012: Senate approves, Governor signs

On January 25, 2012, McDonnell signed the state's new congressional redistricting plan. The plan passed the Senate 20-19.^[29]

March 2012: Department of Justice approves plan

On March 28, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice pre-cleared Virginia's new congressional redistricting plan under the Voting Rights Act.^[30]

Legislative redistricting

March 2011: House and Senate adopts redistricting standards

In the previous round of state redistricting, lawmakers mandated that state districts could not deviate from their ideal size by more than 2%. However, as the legislature sets out its 2010 guidelines, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates passed a stricter 1% standard for 2010 census redistricting. In the Senate, the Democrats' 2% standard was adopted over Republicans' proposal of .5%.^[31][32][33]

March 2011: Preliminary maps released

On March 29, 2011, both chambers released preliminary redistricting maps.^[34] Both maps had been sharply criticized by minority leadership.^[35]

March 2011: Hearings on preliminary maps

Members of the Privileges and Elections Committees held several public hearings on the new redistricting plans.^[36] The hearing schedule was published online.

April 2011: Legislature begins special session

The Virginia General Assembly began a special session on April 4, 2011, in order to complete state legislative redistricting.^[37]

April 2011: House approves chamber plan

The Virginia House of Delegates approved a redistricting plan on April 6, 2011, which set new boundaries for the chamber's 100 seats. The plan was approved by an 86-8 vote, with all 8 nays coming from Democrats. Under the new maps, Minority Leader Ward Armstrong (D) was paired with incumbent Donald Merricks (R).^[38]

All the plan's districts remained within their target of 1% with an average deviation of .65% or 517 residents. Of the 100 newly drawn districts, 73 leaned Republican based on data from the 2009 gubernatorial election.^[39] The house plan proceeded to the Democratically-controlled State Senate for concurrence/amendment.^[40]

April 2011: Senate approves state redistricting plan

The Virginia State Senate approved a redistricting plan on April 7, 2011, which set new boundaries for the chamber's 40 districts. The Senate merged their plan and the House plan as House Bill 5001.^[37]

The Senate-approved maps met their variance requirement of 2% or less, with districts averaging a 1.13% (2,270 residents) variance.^[41] T Senate approved the plan 22-18 along partisan lines.^[42]

The combined plan now moved to the house for concurrence where it was considered on April 11.^[43][44]

April 2011: McDonnell vetoes Virginia state redistricting plan

On April 15, 2011, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) vetoed the legislative redistricting plan.^[45]

Along with the veto, McDonnell included a letter to state lawmakers detailing his reservations about the proposed maps. Most of the Governor's criticisms were directed at the Senate plan. First, he argued that the plan represented an unacceptable increase in the number of divided communities. While the House plan involved only a 4 percent increase in divided communities according to McDonnell, the Senate plan involved an increase of 25 percent. Second, he questioned the 2 percent population deviation limit adopted by the Senate. Finally, the Governor argued that Senate plan represented partisan gerrymandering and that the bipartisan support received by the House plan signaled a fairer approach to redistricting while Senate plan passed along party lines.^[45]

Saslaw said that he and other Senate Democrats would pass the same plan again and would refuse to pass any additional plan. However, on April 22, 2011, Saslaw announced that Senate Democrats were working with Gov. McDonnell to meet all of his concerns.^[46]

April 2011: House passes revised maps

The Virginia House of Delegates passed a revised version of its redistricting plan on April 25, 2011. The plan reunited several divided precincts in the state's Southeast, but was largely the same as its original plan. The Senate, whose plan was more controversial, still had to consider redistricting revisions.^[47]

April 2011: Senate compromise

A compromise was reached on April 27, 2011, as the Virginia State Senate voted 32-5 to send a revised map to Gov. McDonnell. The House concurred by a 63-7 vote. McDonnell indicated he would sign the legislation as soon as possible.^[48]

The Senate made several concessions based on McDonnell's veto of the previous map. "Each side wanted more than they got, but we were able to reach an agreement and produce a map that meets state and federal requirements including special attention to the requirements of the Voting Rights Act," Saslaw said.^[49]Among the changes were:^[50]

• Virginia Beach had two districts instead of one.
• Prince William County was split into one fewer district
• The College of William & Mary was split from the district of House Minority Leader Thomas Norment. Norment worked at the university.

April 2011: McDonnell signs redistricting plan

On April 29, 2011, Gov. McDonnell signed the revised legislative redistricting plan.^[51]

In a statement released prior to his signature, Gov. McDonnell said that the plan "retains more geographic and municipal boundaries, contains districts that are somewhat more compact, and passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan vote."^[52] The plan moved to the Department of Justice for approval under the Voting Rights Act.

May 2011: Attorney General seeks pre-clearance

On May 10, 2011, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sought pre-clearance for the state's legislative redistricting plan before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. While the state also submitted the plans to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the District Court was also permitted to clear the maps. This avenue may have proved quicker for the state as it faced looming elections in the new districts.^[53]

May 2011: DOJ to interview lawmakers

As the DOJ continued its review of Virginia's legislative redistricting plans, it had requested interviews with several lawmakers active in the redistricting process. Members of both the House and Senate called the request routine.^[54]

June 2011: DOJ approves legislative plans

On June 17, 2011, the DOJ approved Virginia's legislative redistricting plan.^[55]

January 2013: Republicans pass new Senate map

Republicans in the Virginia State Senate passed a new redistricting map on January 21, 2013, on a 20-19 party-line vote. The measure, which Democrats tried to get referred to committee, did not go through the normal process and passed in about 30 minutes.^[56]

Set to take effect in 2015, the plan was added onto a bill intended to make technical adjustments to House districts. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) criticized the move. With the senate tied 20-20, Bolling served as the tie-breaking vote. He did not have that chance, however, as Republicans chose to act on the day that Democratic Sen. Henry L. Marsh was attending the inauguration of President Barack Obama.^[57]

February 2013: House kills new Senate map

On February 6, 2013, Speaker of the House William Howell (R) ruled the plan was not relevant to the original House measure that it was attached to, effectively killing the measure.^[58]

Legal issues

Federal lawsuit

November 2011: Lawsuits seek court intervention

On November 16, 2011 a group of Virginia residents filed suit asking the U.S. District Court in Alexandria to draw the state’s new congressional districts. Although lawmakers pledged to pass maps as early as possible in the 2012 session, the plaintiffs argued that the Virginia Constitution required the maps to be completed by the end of the year. In addition, they claimed that the 60-day Department of Justice approval process further exacerbated the delay.^[59] A similar case had also been filed in state court.^[60]

February 2012: Lawsuit dismissed

On February 10, 2012, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed the lawsuit. The court did not elaborate on its decision. At the time of the decision, a similar case was still pending in state court.^[61]

State lawsuit

January 2012: Cuccinelli seeks court intervention

On January 25, 2012, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) asked the Virginia Supreme Court to intervene in the redistricting process..^[62][63]

January 2012: Supreme Court declines to intervene

On January 31, 2012, the Virginia Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging the Virginia General Assembly's authority to pass a redistricting plan after 2011. In response to the court ruling and to accommodate a 60-day review review period under the Voting Rights Act, Cuccinelli asked the General Assembly to move the state's congressional primary from June to August.^[64]

February 2012: Circuit Court dismisses challenge

On February 28, 2012, a Virginia circuit court judge dismissed the state challenge pending against the state's congressional districts. Judge Richard Taylor ruled that although the Virginia Constitution instructed lawmakers to complete redistricting in 2011, it did not forbid the completion of maps in 2012.^[65]

October 2014: Ruling invalidates congressional map

On October 7, 2014, a panel of federal judges ruled that Virginia's congressional map violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The judges ruled that "the GOP-controlled state legislature's decision to pack African-Americans into the 3rd Congressional District ... was motivated purely by race." Brian Smoot, a member of the National Democratic Redistricting Trust, which was involved in redistricting efforts in Virginia and elsewhere, said, "We are pleased with the ruling. The current makeup of the congressional delegation does not reflect the voters across Virginia. We expect this to help alleviate that problem."^[66]

The legislature was required to draw new district lines by April 1, 2015, leaving the 2014 elections unaffected.^[66]

Timeline

The redistricting timeline for Virginia was follows. Some deadlines were approximate as Virginia a one state that required pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Department, enforced under the Voting Rights Act:

Virginia 2010 Redistricting Timeline
Date	Action
December 21, 2010	State informed of number of Congressional seats on the 2010 Census.
March 1, 2011	Expected date to receive complete Census data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
April 1, 2011[67]	Final deadline to receive Census data.
April-June 2011[68].	General Assembly meet to have legislative redistricting plan in place.
August 23, 2011[69]	Statewide and local primary election.
July-October 2011[68]	General Assembly meet to have Congressional redistricting plan in place.
November 8, 2011[69].	General election.
June 12, 2012	First primary elections in newly created districts.
November 6, 2012	First general election in newly created legislative and congressional boundaries.

2011 primary date changed

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) approved legislation on February 17, 2011, which moved the state's 2011 primary from June 14 to August 23. HB 1507 passed both the senate and house unanimously.^[70]

History

Deviation from Ideal Districts

2000 Population deviation[71]
Office	Percentage
Congressional Districts	0.00%
State House Districts	3.90%
State Senate Districts	4.00%
Under federal law, districts may vary from an Ideal District by up to 10%, though the lowest number achievable is preferred. Ideal Districts are computed through simple division of the number of seats for any office into the population at the time of the Census.

See also

• State Legislative and Congressional Redistricting after the 2010 Census
• State-by-state redistricting procedures

External links

• Official Virginia Redistricting Government Home Page
• Official Virginia Redistricting Information
• Virginia House of Delegates Redistricting Fact Sheet
• Virginia Senate Redistricting Fact Sheet
• Virginia Division of Legislative Services, "Guide to Local Redistricting for 2011"

Footnotes