The principle of “one person, one vote” in the election law context is an established rule of law. The idea is that each person’s vote should carry the same weight. A corollary of this principle is that every 10 years, legislative district boundaries change pursuant to a redistricting plan. Redistricting is intended, in theory, to reflect demographic shifts within the Commonwealth. In the House of Delegates, for example, the 100 districts are currently designed to contain approximately 72,000 people. After the next census occurs, changes in legislative boundaries also will occur.

The United States Supreme Court and federal law provide guidance on how redistricting can and cannot occur. For example, boundary changes should strive to keep community of interests intact. In contrast, districts cannot be drawn that have the purpose or effect of disenfranchising people on the basis of race.

In Virginia, the political party in control draws the boundaries. This can work fine when there is a power-sharing arrangement, such as when one political party controls one chamber of the legislature and another political party controls the other chamber of the legislature. Distortions tend to arise, however, when one political party controls the entire redistricting process. In such an instance, there tends to be a smaller number of competitive districts drawn, leading to a smaller number of competitive general elections. Likewise, districts tend to be supermajority Republican or supermajority Democrat, which tends to polarize the legislature.

Currently, the House of Delegates is controlled by Republicans, and the State Senate is controlled by Democrats. It would seem that this is an ideal time for the creation of a bipartisan redistricting commission to draw the boundaries immediately after the next census and beyond. Unfortunately, however, the House bills calling for such as commission have been defeated.

The closest chance to having a redistricting bill pass this year was Senate Bill 38. On Feb. 4, the State Senate voted in favor of this bill to establish a bipartisan redistricting commission by a vote of 35-5. On Friday, this bill was considered by a House subcommittee of the House Committee on Privileges and Elections. Given the composition of this subcommittee, three members of the House were able to defeat further consideration of this important bill.

Unfortunately, this was probably the last opportunity this session to establish the creation of a bipartisan redistricting commission. It is an important initiative, and I hope that all members of the House of Delegates are given the opportunity to vote on it in a future session.