LYNCHBURG, Va. – The clock is ticking for Virginia’s redistricting commission, as it works to redraw election district maps.
The state’s first bipartisan, citizen-led redistricting commission has an Oct. 10 deadline to submit its recommendations to the General Assembly.
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Failure to reach an agreement would send the matter to Virginia’s Supreme Court. One of their goals is to avoid gerrymandering. Racial representation remains a leading obstacle, according to Nicholas Goedert, a political science professor at Virginia Tech.
“Republican maps [are] tending to concentrate black voters in a smaller number of districts, where they constitute a majority or a supermajority of the vote in those districts; while Democrats want to spread black voters across more districts, where they have more opportunities,” said Goedert.
This comes as the central region of the redistricting commission held a virtual, public hearing Wednesday, where some spoke out in support of protecting black voters.