The Virginia Redistricting Commission met in Richmond for three hours yesterday. Now that the Census data has been released and maps are being created, the schedule is going to get increasingly full and fast-paced - and OneVirginia2021 is here to help you keep up! Here’s a two minute recap of what happened yesterday.
Senator Bill Stanley (R-Franklin) has replaced Senator Steve Newman (R-Bedford) on the Commission, following Newman’s resignation last Friday.
Going forward, the Commission will hold two meetings per week. At the first meeting, consultants will present draft maps for the specified region(s) and take questions from the members. At the second meeting, the members will discuss and adjust the maps.
The consultants will work region by region - now that NOVA has been drafted, they will move on to Tidewater and the Eastern region.
All maps presented are drafts. They have been created using the criteria defined by federal and Virginia law and by the Commission.
The consultants will not consider incumbent addresses nor any other data not provided to them by the Commission. The Commission may consider incumbent addresses as they make adjustments to the drafts.
No regional map will be finalized until it is part of a statewide map. That’s when the Commission will take a vote.
The public can comment on every draft map presented to the Commission. This will help the commissioners as they make decisions about final district lines.
Any member of the Commission may use the mapping software to propose alterations to the drafts - these map submissions will be treated as comments.
You can find all of the proposed maps and links to data and reports on the NEW maps section of our website.
For a full summary of the meeting, see what our friends at the League of Women Voters of VA have written.
P.S. Don’t forget - you can submit feedback to the Commission with our online form or by drawing a map of your community.