Redistricting Debate Should Be Left to Virginia Voters

A recent letter to the Royal Examiner attempted to frame Congressional redistricting as a power grab by Democrats instead of explaining that the choice lies in the hands of the voters. A more accurate view of the redistricting issue illustrates the consequences of a Republican president calling on states to create more Republican congressional districts prior to the crucial 2026 election. Several red states responded by creating more GOP-leaning districts. Democratic led states have also responded, and now Virginia voters will decide on the necessity of protecting the nation from the Republican agenda.

Questions about voting do not exist in a vacuum. The Republican Party has long attempted to influence elections. Many remember the election in 2000, decided by a Republican majority Supreme Court, which placed a Republican candidate in office. More recently, we have the spectacle of another Republican president asking a Georgia Secretary of State to “find” 11,780 more votes. That president still clings to the fantasy that he was victorious in the 2020 election, which led to the January 6th assault on the Capitol building and multiple convictions from that attack. But after numerous challenges to the 2020 election, the president’s own Attorney General proclaimed it a fair election.

Republican disinformation leads many in their base to question the validity of American elections. The libertarian Cato Institute, among other sources, states that voter fraud does not exist on any meaningful level. The Constitution gives the states, not the federal government, responsibility for administering elections.

The larger issue is that the Republican Party is aware that its policies are unpopular, and so it conspires to corrupt elections to continue its grasp on power. One solution is to prevent perceived unfriendly voters from exercising their suffrage rights. For years, we have seen election officials in red states purging voters from election rolls and removing polling places in locations considered unfriendly to Republicans. The newest challenge is a desire to place ICE agents at polling stations.

Instead of encouraging Americans to exercise their most important civic duty, they seek to control elections. The Republican crafted SAVE Act, recently passed by the House, contains methods to restrict voting. Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Minnesota state officials to surrender voter rolls with the apparent intent to illegally access voter data.

The president insists that voter ID will be in place before the midterms, stating, “We should take over the voting…in at least 15 places.” In Georgia, with no legal rationale, he had the FBI seize records from the 2020 election. Regardless, we are told that Democrats are grabbing power.

Republicans are pushing an agenda in search of a problem that does not exist. The majority of Americans are not so easily manipulated, and we retain the ability to recognize a con when confronted with one. But the author of the recent letters continues with a litany of deceptions about the Democratic Party and the fallacy that the effects of redistricting would last ten years. The proposed law is temporary and will be void after the 2030 census.

The loose association with the truth that permeates the Republican mindset was on display in the 2024 election in remarks by now Vice President Vance. When questioned about his lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, he responded,” If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” This letter, imagining a Democrat power grab, is yet another example of the Republicans’ willingness to pursue their agenda regardless of facts.

The redrawing of congressional districts could help to bridge the divide between rural and urban areas, requiring candidates to understand issues and to work for votes in areas outside of their normal base. Promoting a better balance between the two would improve understanding of state issues. We have an opportunity to resist the onslaught of misinformation and deflection forged by the GOP. The question is in the hands of the voters of our Commonwealth.

Steve Foreman
Warren County, VA

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