Daily Progress Editorial, Jan 5, 2021
Be grateful that so many Virginians want to serve their commonwealth.
More than 1,200 citizens applied to serve on Virginia’s first bipartisan redistricting commission — despite the fact that the commission’s work will be difficult and possibly contentious.
These 1,200 Virginians are willing to face that challenge in order to help correct the state’s long reliance on political gerrymandering in the creation of voting districts.
The number of applicants also shows just how strong is the impulse for redistricting reform in Virginia.
This is a topic on which we’ve commented so frequently that readers should be deeply familiar with the situation by now.
After each federal census, voting districts are redesigned to reflect new population figures. The districts are supposed to be roughly equal in population as well as “compact and contiguous” — that is, individually centralized and fitting neatly together as a group.
The ideal can’t always be achieved. But redistricters often took advantage of that loophole to create unorthodox shapes — long, skinny districts running along the James River, for instance, or the current huge, non-compact 5th Congressional District that stretches from the North Carolina border to just one county shy of the Maryland border.
And who were the redistricters? The bulk of that power fell to the General Assembly’s majority party, which devised districts that benefited its own partisans or disadvantaged its opponents. Republicans, when they were in power, found ways to damage Democratic; Democrats, in their turn, found ways to harm Republicans.
The unfair redistricting — nicknamed gerrymandering — became so egregious that it sparked a reform movement to shift power from partisan lawmakers to nonpartisan citizens. Years of patient work eventually persuaded state legislators to permit voters to decide on a constitutional amendment that would revise the redistricting process. Voters approved the amendment on Nov. 3.
The reform effort was not entirely successful — lawmakers were unwilling to relinquish complete power — but it did result in a compromise by which a commission of lawmakers plus citizens would be created.
The mechanisms ultimately allowed by the General Assembly are complicated, but in summary the new system gives citizens a strong voice, and even seeks to tip power slightly in their direction; a backup plan sends decisions to the courts as a kind of tie-breaker.
The new commission holds its first meeting on Feb. 1, so recent attention has been focused on appointing the civilian members.
In a late surge before the Dec. 28 deadline, the roster of applicants rose to 1,200. A panel of retired judges will select eight people out of this huge number, based on criteria from the General Assembly but distanced from the lawmakers’ direct power.
Critics say the roster does not reflect the diversity of Virginia. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, 17% self-identified as Black, 4% are Hispanic and 2.4% are Asian.
According to recent census figures, 19.9% of Virginia residents are Black, 9.8% are Hispanic and 6.9% are Asian.
The applications also include more men than women.
But here’s where the sheer number of applicants is not only impressive but downright valuable.
Out of more than 1,200 people, judges have only to select eight. From that huge number, surely they can find the right mix of appointees to represent the state’s diversity while also serving the voters’ interests by tempering partisanship in the redistricting process.
Instead of complaining that the applicant pool doesn’t fully represent Virginia’s population, we should be grateful that the pool is so extensive that diversity goals can be met from within that group.
Besides, the old system didn’t reflect diversity, either — political diversity.
The more than 1,200 unselfish Virginians who offered their skills, courage and dedication deserve our deepest gratitude.
Their efforts will support democracy and improve the fairness of our elections.