To our supporters:
As you know, the recent news coming out of the Virginia Redistricting Commission has been marred with partisanship and political gridlock. The deadline has passed to submit state legislative maps to the General Assembly for approval, which now moves the process to the Supreme Court of Virginia (SCOVA). Barring a last-minute compromise, the same will happen to Congressional maps in the coming days.
We share your disappointment that the Commission’s months of work resulted in this impasse. This is not what voters expected in their support of Amendment 1, nor is it what we, as an organization, advocated for over the past seven years.
The formation of this Commission was intended to force entrenched partisans to come together and compromise on a final plan for fair districts. We sincerely believed it would discharge its duties, and we weren’t alone -- this plan was supported by a long list of nonpartisan advocacy groups, anti-gerrymandering experts from across the country, every major newspaper in Virginia, and over 2.7 million voters.
The authors of Amendment 1 also knew there was a possibility that the partisan divide would be insurmountable, which is exactly why SCOVA was included as a backstop to break a potential stalemate. The alternative would have been to revert back to relying on the General Assembly to write their own rules.
Recent history indicates that courts across the country have drawn fair and representative maps in the past, and we remain confident that SCOVA will do so in this instance. OneVirginia2021 was founded on the mission of drawing fair districts for the next decade, and Virginia is still on track to achieve that goal.
As has been said several times by citizen Commissioners, sending maps to SCOVA does not indicate a failure of the new redistricting process. For us, the real failure would have been to approach redistricting in Virginia the same way we always have while hoping for a different result.
Prior to the passage of Amendment 1, most everyone agreed that Virginia’s redistricting process had been profoundly broken for generations. The status quo was unacceptable, and this was a good faith attempt to repair it. As messy and frustrating as this process has sometimes been, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Virginia has taken a huge, unprecedented step towards independent redistricting. We are proud of the progress Virginia has made in the face of significant political pushback throughout the years.
We know that many of you -- our longtime supporters -- may be feeling deflated. But looking forward, we encourage each and every one of you to remain engaged.
We would like to invite you to an informational webinar on Thursday, October 28 at 7pm, which we are co-hosting with the League of Women Voters of Virginia, CASA, and the National Black Nonpartisan Redistricting Organization. Click here for more details.
This redistricting process has served as a real-time learning experience for everyone involved. We look forward to continuing the conversation with reform advocates like you to discuss how Virginia can improve it in advance of the next redistricting cycle.
Finally, we want to express our profound appreciation to you. Your hard work and financial support over the years has been astounding and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Sincerely,
Liz White, Executive Director, OneVirginia2021
Sharron Kitchen Miller, President of the Board, OneVirginia2021 Foundation