When I went to the Martinsville Municipal Building on March 6 to vote yes on the constitutional amendment for temporary redistricting in Virginia, I was surprised to see numerous signs urging voters to “End Gerrymandering” by voting no. In very tiny print at the bottom, the signs indicated that they were sponsored by the Republican Party of Virginia.
In the days since then, I have been very distressed to receive three different mailers linking the proposed amendment to voter suppression among minority voters, blatantly and falsely comparing the amendment to Jim Crow tactics and the Ku Klux Klan. The flyers are variously identified as being paid for by the “Democracy and Justice PAC” or the “Justice for Democracy PAC”. They are the same Republican-aligned PAC headed by former Republican Delegate A. C. Cordoza.
It is the height of hypocrisy for the Republican Party to advance the idea that somehow this amendment for temporary (italics mine) redistricting is a power grab of some sort, designed to disenfranchise voters. Last July, President Trump pressured Texas to redistrict in mid-decade in order to pick up more Republican seats in the House of Representatives and subsequently had his Department of Justice order the state to do so.
I do not believe that President Trump thought this through, as blue states have rushed to negate this obvious power grab by redistricting themselves in order to maximize their Democratic representation in Congress and combat the President’s attempt to stack the deck in favor of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
I worked with the organization, OneVirginia2021, that ended the practice of having the General Assembly draw district lines, thereby allowing lawmakers to choose their voters rather than the other way around. In that process, I became aware that both parties are inclined to manipulate the system in order to maintain a hold on power. However, due to bipartisan support, Amendment 1 was passed in 2020, establishing a bipartisan commission to decide redistricting after the 2020 census.
It is certainly sad but definitely a sign of our current times that Virginia must now temporarily gerrymander its districts to favor Democrats, given President Trump’s attempts to do the same for Republicans in red states. But make no mistake, this has nothing to do with silencing minority votes and everything to do with countering Trump’s partisan efforts. The Republican hold on both the House of Representatives and the Senate is thin almost to the point of nonexistent, and the President is desperate to maintain his power.
Do not be fooled! Vote yes on this amendment!
M. Martha Woody,
Martinsville
