VPS LEGALS/PUBLIC NOTICES - CVA

Proposed Constitutional
Amendment

To be voted on at the April 21, 2026,
Special Election

BALLOT QUESTION
Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new
congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard
redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?
EXPLANATION FOR VOTERS (Approved by House and Senate Privileges and Elections Committees
on February 20, 2026)
Present Law
Virginia’s eleven congressional districts are drawn once every ten years by the Virginia Redistricting
Commission, a legislative body made up of eight legislators and eight citizens, with an equal number
of Republicans and Democrats. Virginia’s congressional districts were last redrawn in 2021 and will
next be redrawn in 2031.
Proposed Amendment
The proposed amendment would give the General Assembly the authority to redraw one or more
of Virginia’s congressional districts before 2031 in limited circumstances. In the event that another
state redraws its own congressional districts before 2031, without being ordered by a court to do so,
the General Assembly would then be able to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts. The General
Assembly’s power to do so would continue until October 31, 2030, and the Virginia Redistricting
Commission would reassume the responsibility of drawing the congressional districts in 2031.
The proposed district map has been approved by the General Assembly and would take effect only if
the constitutional amendment is approved by the voters.
A “yes” vote would allow the General Assembly to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts, since other
states have done so, in addition to giving effect to the proposed district map in time for the 2026
Congressional elections, and return the responsibility of drawing the congressional districts in 2031 to
the Virginia Redistricting Commission.
A “no” vote would leave the authority to draw congressional districts with the Virginia Redistricting
Commission once a decade and Virginia’s current districts would remain in place.
FULL TEXT OF AMENDMENT
[Proposed new language is underlined. Deleted old language is stricken.]
ARTICLE II.
Franchise and Officers
Section 6. Apportionment.
Members of the House of Representatives of the United States and members of the Senate and
of the House of Delegates of the General Assembly shall be elected from electoral districts established
pursuant to this section and Section 6-A of this Constitution. Every electoral district shall be composed
of contiguous and compact territory and shall be so constituted as to give, as nearly as is practicable,
representation in proportion to the population of the district. Every electoral district shall be drawn in
accordance with the requirements of federal and state laws that address racial and ethnic fairness,
including the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States and provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and judicial decisions interpreting
such laws. Districts shall provide, where practicable, opportunities for racial and ethnic communities to
elect candidates of their choice.
The Commonwealth shall be reapportioned into electoral districts in accordance with this section
and Section 6-A in the year 2021 and every ten years thereafter, except that the General Assembly
shall be authorized to modify one or more congressional districts at any point following the adoption of
a decennial reapportionment law, but prior to the next decennial census, in the event that any State of
the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state’s congressional districts at any point
following that state’s adoption of a decennial reapportionment law for any purpose other than (i) the
completion of the state’s decennial redistricting in response to a federal census and reapportionment
mandated by the Constitution of the United States and established in federal law or (ii) as ordered by any
state or federal court to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map.
Any such decennial reapportionment law, or reapportionment law modifying one or more congressional
districts, shall take effect immediately and not be subject to the limitations contained in Article IV,
Section 13, of this Constitution.
The districts delineated in the decennial any reapportionment law shall be implemented for the November
general election for the United States House of Representatives, Senate, or House of Delegates,
respectively, that is held immediately prior to the expiration of the term being served in the year that the
reapportionment law is required to be enacted. A member in office at the time that a decennial redistricting
law is enacted shall complete his term of office and shall continue to represent the district from which he
was elected for the duration of such term of office so long as he does not move his residence from the
district from which he was elected. Any vacancy occurring during such term shall be filled from the same
district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.
SCHEDULE
Section 6. Application and duration of certain redistricting amendments.
The authorization in Article II, Section 6 authorizing the General Assembly to modify one or more
congressional districts at any point following adoption of a decennial reapportionment law in the event
that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state’s congressional
districts at any point following that state’s adoption of a decennial reapportionment law shall be limited to
making such modifications between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030, in response to actions taken
by another state between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030