VA Redistricting Vote Kicks Off With a Scramble
Legal appeals over the vote will have to wait. It's voting time on the proposed new congressional maps.
Early voting kicked off Friday (March 6) on the legally contentious issue of whether Virginia voters should amend their constitution and allow assembly Democrats to re-write congressional maps that would remove four Republican-held House seats.
If the first day of the special election is any indication, voters are engaged.
According to the Daily Absentee List (DAL) of early voting from the Department of Elections, more than 25,000 voted early on-machine Friday.
Registrars have issued (mailed out absentee ballots) to 394,121 voters so far.
Many localities were scrambling to get ballots out the door and testing on voting machines complete in time for the 45-day early voting period ahead of the Special Election on April 21.
Albemarle County showed more than 7,000 mail-in ballots still in “not issued” status as of Saturday, March 7. Richmond City showed zero data for On Machine, in-person voting.
Download EPEC’s Day One lookup sheet here to see how many mail-in ballots localities are issuing so far.
Here are the totals as of Friday, according to the Dept. of Elections:
Although the in-person (On Machine) number is 18% lower than in-person early voters (On-Machine) compared to the 2025 fall general election, it is still a strong start for a special election.
The redistricting issue has dominated Virginia’s politics for months amid legal challenges and an onslaught of advertising from Democrat-aligned groups claiming that gerrymandered maps are fair.
The ballot question itself conflates the word “fairness” with a plan to re-draw the current 6-5 (D-R) congressional map to a 10-1 (D-R) gerrymandered map ahead of the midterm elections.
“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?”
If the vote passes, the new maps would give Democrats about 90% of representation in Congress and lock out a wide swath of Republican voters across the Commonwealth. A no vote would preserve the current maps for the midterms.
The Supreme Court of Virginia is still hearing appeals challenging how the constitutional amendment was construed (after majority-Democrats in the assembly voted in the midst of early voting in 2025 and claimed that counted as one of two intervening assembly votes). Even the wording of the ballot question itself is being appealed.
Similar to its January ruling to stay a Tazewell Circuit Court injunction that ruled the constitutional referendum was not legally construed, while agreeing to take up appeals, the SCV issued another stay of a recent second Tazewell Circuit Court injunction.
Same plan by the SCV: Go ahead and vote, and the justices will issue a ruling later on whether the whole thing was done constitutionally.
“It is the process, not the outcome, of this effort that we may ultimately have to address,” the SCV said in its March 4th ruling.
EPEC Data Analysis Updated for Early Voting
EPEC Team’s volunteer CTO, Jon Lareau, has updated summary data feeds of early voting to help the public track ballot statuses and turnout.
You can track the DAL summary data here.
For an explainer of each ballot status, see Lareau’s update here.
We are also updating our unique analysis of voting propensity and modeled turnout by party affiliation to estimate turnout.
Special Election Web Page
The Department of Elections has rolled out a web page explaining the constitutional amendment question on the ballot and proposed district maps that were approved by the General Assembly.
The new maps would only take effect if the ballot question is approved by 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.
See the overview web page here:
https://www.elections.virginia.gov/election-law/proposed-amendment-for-april-2026-special-election/
See the explainer here for the Proposed Constitutional Amendment.
Also noted: Key Deadlines Per ELECT:
Register to Vote/Update Registration: 4/14/2026
Early in-person voting: 3/6/2026 through 4/18/2026
Apply for ballot to be mailed to you: through 4/10/2026
EPEC Team will increase its publishing schedule as early voting unfolds, and provide more details on the modeling of turnout throughout the 45-day early voting stretch.
Current Congressional Districts:
Proposed Maps:
As one of the latest ads promoting a “no” vote on the maps says, this is no time to sit out an election.
Find your polling place or check your registration here. And get out to vote! #