Judge Blocks Virginia Redistricting Plan a Day After Voters Approve It

A Virginia circuit judge on Wednesday barred the state from putting a new congressional map into effect, one day after voters approved the redistricting referendum by roughly three percentage points, CBS News and Fox 5 DC reported.

Judge Jack Hurley of Tazewell County Circuit Court declared all votes cast in Tuesday’s referendum “ineffective” and barred state officials from certifying the results, according to CBS News; Fox 5 DC reported a permanent injunction against certifying the results or implementing the plan. Both outlets said he found that required constitutional steps were not followed and that the ballot language was misleading. CBS News, which quoted the order calling the question “flagrantly misleading,” also reported a violation of a 90-day public-notice requirement; that detail is not independently confirmed. Hurley had ruled in January that the amendment was illegal when the General Assembly passed it, CBS News said, and the Virginia Supreme Court let this week’s vote proceed without deciding the underlying legal issues.

Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, said he will appeal at once. “Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote,” he wrote on X. The Republican National Committee, which sued along with the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the ruling “a major victory for Virginians,” and its chair, Joe Gruters, said Democrats had tried to force “a blatant power grab,” CBS News reported.

The referendum asked voters to amend the constitution so lawmakers could replace the congressional map drawn under a bipartisan commission that voters created in 2020. The new map, passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly, would make 10 of the state’s 11 House seats Democratic-leaning, CBS News and NBC News reported. The delegation is now six Democrats and five Republicans. Democrats hoped to gain as many as four seats, and Virginia would return to its commission system after 2030, according to both outlets.

With 97 percent of votes counted Tuesday night, the “yes” side led by 3 points, NBC News reported. Democrats cast the measure as a response to President Trump’s push for Republican-led states to redraw their maps, led by Texas, which shifted five Democratic districts toward the GOP, according to CBS News. California voters approved a counter-measure last year to move five Republican-held districts toward Democrats. Missouri and North Carolina each redrew one seat for Republicans. CBS News said the legal challenges to those maps have not succeeded so far, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn the Texas and California maps.

The campaign was lopsided in spending but close in result. NBC News, citing AdImpact, reported that Republicans cut a 17-to-1 Democratic spending advantage to 3-to-1 in the final month after an early April poll gave them hope. Republicans argued that the process was unconstitutional; former Gov. Glenn Youngkin urged the state Supreme Court to “rule against this unconstitutional process that will disenfranchise millions of Virginians,” CBS News reported. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who leads the House Republican campaign arm, said, according to CBS News, that the result “reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn’t be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander.” Gov. Abigail Spanberger campaigned for the referendum and former President Barack Obama appeared in supporters’ ads, NBC News reported.