Why States Matter: Good News in Virginia
By: Juliet Eastland
Tags: Politics, Gun Violence, Statesmatter, Virginia, Elections

Elyssa Fahndrich for UnSplash

TIME FOR SOME GOOD NEWS. Am I right?!

Just a few years ago, the commonwealth of Virginia was in a sorry state. The Old Dominion had cemented its status as one of the worst-gerrymandered states in the nation, with several illegal-racial-gerrymandering cases on the books to prove it. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton won over Virginia voters in 2016 by more than 5 percentage points, an entrenched Republican majority prevailed in the state’s General Assembly, systematically diluting the votes of citizens of color and stonewalling everything from Medicaid expansion to gun-safety legislation.

No longer.

Backed by the hard work of Sister District volunteers across the country, progressive Virginia candidates in 2017 stormed the Bastille and toppled the 66 Republican-34 Democrat legislative imbalance, reducing it to a more accurately representative 51R-49D ratio. And in 2019, again with SDP support, Democrats successfully flipped both state chambers, turning the state into a blue trifecta.

If you had any doubt that the legislators we’ve helped elect are changing lives, take a look at three significant areas of legislation enacted this year by the newly Democratic Virginia General Assembly. Where applicable, I’ve named Sister District Project candidates involved in legislation, with SDP MA-RI candidates marked in bold.

Making Voting Easier

Automatic Voter Registration

Finally! Anyone interacting with the Department of Motor Vehicles will now automatically have their information transmitted to the Department of Elections.

Election Day Declared a State Holiday

In an example of karmic beauty, the holiday will replace Lee-Jackson Day, which celebrated two Confederate generals.

Bill Patrons: Wendy Gooditis, Elizabeth Guzman, et al.

Expanded Criteria for Student Voter ID

Students may present a photo ID from any institution of higher education anywhere within the country (as opposed to only within Virginia). Effective 7/1/20.

Patrons: Kathleen Murphy, et al.

Extended Polling Hours

Election-day polling hours extended from 7 to 8pm (effective only if re-passed by 2021 state legislature).

Chief Co-Patron: Hala Ayala.

Extension of Absentee Ballot Receipt

Absentee ballots may be received by Department of Elections up to three days after the election, as long as they’re postmarked by or on election date.

Co-Patron: Kathy Tran.

No-Excuse Absentee Voting

Registered voters may vote by absentee ballot for any reason (currently, a list of statutory reasons determines who may cast an absentee ballot). Registered voters may also join a “permanent absentee voter list,” enabling absentee voting in all future elections. Effective 7/1/21.

Patrons: Jennifer Carroll Foy, Lee Carter, Wendy Gooditis, Elizabeth Guzman, et al.

Printed Ballots

Any electronic voting system must retain “each printed ballot cast.” Given their constant baying about nonexistent “voter fraud,” GOP legislators must be delighted at this measure, no? (Kidding.)

Ranked Choice Voting

Under a ten-year pilot program, voters will be allowed to rank their candidate choices in order. Effective 7/1/21–7/1/31.

Patrons: Jennifer Carroll Foy, Elizabeth Guzman, Kathy Tran, Lee Carter, et al.

Same-day Voter Registration

Voters may register up to and including on Election Day (current registration period ends 21 days before Election Day). Effective 10/1/22.

Patron: Hala Ayala. Co-patrons: Shelly Simonds, Lee Carter, Joshua Cole, Karrie Delaney, Wendy Gooditis, Kathleen Murphy, Danica Roem, Kathy Tran, et al.

2. Making Maps Fairer

This is huge. After years of GOP gerrymandering, it would be soooo tempting for newly-in-charge Virginia Democrats to continue the practice in their own favor. But they’ve opted to be the grownups in the room and implement nonpartisan mapmaking procedures, effectively neutering their own gerrymandering ability for the sake of the greater, long-term good. Imagine that!

In brief: in March 2020, the now-Democratic state legislature approved a constitutional amendment to create a 16-member bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission. The Commission would be in charge of drawing Congressional and state legislative maps, and would comprise eight state lawmakers (four Senators and four Representatives, two from each party), and eight citizens selected by retired judges.

Should commissioners fail to agree on a map, the state Supreme Court would take over the task (more on that below).

The amendment heads to voters for approval this November… in the nick of time for 2020 Census results and 2021 redistricting.

“Standards & Criteria”

Because the amendment was weaker than proponents had hoped, legislators also passed Senate Bill 717, detailing “standards and criteria” for redistricting (effective 7/1/20). Viz.: Commission members must maintain districts of roughly equal populations, ensure district compactness and contiguity, and preserve “communities of interest” (“neighborhood[s] or any geographically defined group of people living in an area who share similar social, cultural, and economic interests”). Mapmakers are barred from “unduly favoring or disfavoring any political party,” and forbidden from engaging in racial and ethnic gerrymandering (maybe this time will be the charm?).

SB 717 also adapts provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 at the state level, prohibiting the drawing of districts “in ways that improperly dilute minority populations’ voting power.” (In 2013, the US Supreme Court gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, effectively leaving it up to states to self-enforce fairness.) Finally, SB 717 mandates that incarcerated people be counted at their facility’s address.

Being statutory, SB 717’s provisions may be repealed unless they’re enshrined in the state constitution.

As mentioned above, the state Supreme Court would take over redistricting should the Commission fail at the task. But there’s a potential hitch: Virginia is one of the few states where legislators choose judges, meaning state courts are at risk of politicization. (Unsurprisingly, the current state Supreme Court skews Republican.) The legislature therefore also passed a so-called “enabling bill” that applies the same nonpartisan criteria as above to the state Supreme Court, should it be called to redistrict.

3. Making People Safer

According to the Pew Research Center, 29.3 percent of Virginians own guns — a lower percentage than top-ranked Alaska (61.7%), but greater than, say, Rhode Island (5.8%) or Massachusetts (22.6%). More than 1,000 Virginians die annually from gun incidents, but the bloodshed is not confined to state lines: as part of the “Iron Pipeline,” a network of states with weak gun laws that extends along I-95, Virginia exports crime guns to other states at the ninth-highest rate in the country (Giffords Law Center). That’s brisk business for a relatively small state.

The state’s GOP legislators have consistently resisted sane gun laws, often in the most craven manner imaginable. Remember May 2019, when a mass shooter terrorized Virginia Beach? Two months later, GOP legislators walked out of a specially convened session on gun control, choosing to adjourn until after the November 2019 election rather than address the issue.

In January 2020, alarmed by the possibility that the newly Democratic majority might impose totalitarian law, er, common-sense gun legislation, 22,000 heavily-armed gun extremists convened in Richmond, sporting tactical gear, full-body armor, and other symbols of American Freedom.

Three months later, their fears were realized, as Governor Ralph Northam, supported at long last by a Democratic General Assembly, signed into law a slate of gun-violence prevention measures.

Per his press release, the new laws (effective 7/1/20) will “enact an Extreme Risk Protective Order [aka “Red Flag Law,” allowing family or law enforcement to petition courts for temporary removal of guns if a person is in crisis and potentially dangerous to self or others], require background checks on all gun sales, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms, and reinstate Virginia’s successful one-handgun-a-month policy.” (I know. Who compulsively binge-buys guns? Sometimes I just don’t understand this country.)

What A Difference an Activist Makes

When SDP activists first turned our attention to Virginia in 2017, meaningful transformation of the legislature seemed a pipe dream. Three years later, the men and women we helped elect are transforming people’s lives for the better. Our activism is working. Let’s not stop now.

- Juliet Eastland