Redistricting Special Masters released draft maps for Virginia state legislative and congressional districts
They are tasked with drawing the legislative maps for Virginia.
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Here is the latest dump of info in the redistricting process. The two special masters presented these draft maps. The process is currently being handled by the Supreme Court of Virginia who appointed two special masters to draw the districts after the redistricting commission failed.
Maps and Special Masters Documents
Special Masters Bernard Grofman, Ph.D. and Sean Trende presented the following memo with the draft maps for Virginia’s legislative districts.
“We are pleased to present this Court with three draft maps for its review. As described in this Court’s Redistricting Appointment Order (“Redistricting Order”), we have proposed “a single redistricting map for the Virginia House of Delegates, a single redistricting map for the Senate of Virginia, and a single redistricting map for Virginia’s representatives to the United States House of Representatives.” Redistricting Order at 1-2. We are also pleased to report that we have “work[ed] together to develop any plan to be submitted to the Court for its consideration,” Code § 30-399(F). These maps reflect a true joint effort on our part. We agreed on almost all issues initially, and the few issues on which we initially disagreed were resolved by amicable discussion. When drawing these maps, we have worked diligently to craft maps that comply with the statutory and constitutional provisions enumerated by this Court. See Redistricting Order at 2-3. The purpose of this memo is to relate our approach to the various constitutional provisions to this Court, and then to explain the reasoning for choices that we made in the specific districts. We 2 further anticipate that when we release the plans for public comment, the Court may wish to include this memo with that release. We first emphasize, however, that our prime directive for drawing these maps comes not from the constitutional or statutory provisions described by this Court, but rather from the Court’s order itself. In particular, we took seriously the Court’s command that, although we were nominated by the political parties, we would behave in “an apolitical and nonpartisan manner.” Id at 3. Our duty is owed not to the parties that nominated us, but rather to the Court that appointed us and to the residents of the Commonwealth that it serves.”