The Virginia Board of Democratic Participation thanks you for your recent election experience. Our records confirm you voted April 21, 2026, in a redistricting referendum that passed with 51.7% support. Following administrative review, we regret to inform you that your election occurred during an election, rendering it constitutionally invalid. Your vote was processed. Your vote has been nullified. These are complementary outcomes.
To clarify: Virginia's constitution requires the legislature to vote on proposed amendments before "the intervening election." The legislature voted October 31, 2025. Early voting for a separate House of Delegates election had begun September 19, 2025. The court concluded that election had already commenced, and considerately disclosed this finding after your April 2026 election had concluded and all votes were certified.
We appreciate your cooperation. The Virginia Supreme Court reviewed the referendum before Election Day, authorized its continuation, observed more than three million citizens casting ballots, accepted certified results, and retroactively invalidated those results. This confirms our commitment to procedural rigor at every stage except the one where votes were counted.
The existing congressional maps have been preserved. The $5.2 million allocated to administer your non-qualifying election has been appropriately expended. Four U.S. House seats remain unaffected by votes that did not occur. Virginia democracy continues to function as intended.
Thank you for your participation. Your input has been received, reviewed, and successfully discarded. We look forward to your continued engagement in future electoral simulations.
Reason to Care
The Virginia Supreme Court voided a redistricting referendum that more than three million Virginians voted on and approved in April 2026 — ruling the result null and void because of a procedural timing violation from October 2025 that had nothing to do with how any voter cast their ballot. The existing congressional maps remain in place through the 2026 midterms and the rest of the decade, leaving four U.S. House seats and potential House majority control unchanged.
- On April 21, 2026, Virginia held a special redistricting referendum. Voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to redraw congressional maps, 51.7% to 48.3%, with more than three million Virginians casting ballots.
(Source: Virginia State Board of Elections — https://www.elections.virginia.gov/news-releases/supreme-court-of-virginia-voids-april-21-redistricting-referendum-1.html) - On May 8, 2026, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the referendum was null and void. The court found the General Assembly violated the state constitution's requirement for an "intervening general election" between the legislature's two required approval votes — because the first legislative vote, cast October 31, 2025, occurred after early voting for the 2025 House of Delegates election had already begun on September 19, 2025.
(Source: VPM — https://www.vpm.org/generalassembly/2026-05-08/scova-redistricting-referendum-scott-mcdougle-kelsey) - The 4-3 dissent, authored by Chief Justice Cleo Powell, argued that "general election" means Election Day — a single day, November 4, 2025 — and that because the legislature voted October 31, four days before Election Day, the intervening-election requirement was satisfied. The majority, the dissent concluded, had "broadened the meaning of the word 'election.'"
(Source: Ballotpedia — https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/05/08/virginia-supreme-court-voids-election-results-for-virginia-redistricting-referendum-blocking-implementation-of-a-map-that-would-have-shifted-four-congressional-seats-towards-democrats/) - The Virginia Supreme Court had previously reviewed the case and allowed the April 21 referendum to proceed while explicitly reserving the right to rule on legality afterward. The state spent $5.2 million conducting the special election; outside groups spent nearly $100 million influencing it. Virginia rescheduled its primary elections from June to August 4, 2026 to accommodate the referendum.
(Source: Axios Richmond — https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2026/05/08/virginia-supreme-court-redistricting-vote-decision) - The ruling keeps the existing 6-5 Democratic-advantage congressional map in place, blocking a proposed map that would have shifted four Republican-held seats and potentially produced a 10-1 Democratic advantage in Virginia's congressional delegation.
(Source: NPR — https://www.npr.org/2026/05/08/nx-s1-5805193/redistricting-virginia-trump-midterms) - On May 15, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Virginia Democrats' emergency request to pause the ruling. The existing maps will govern the 2026 midterm elections.
(Source: VPM — https://www.vpm.org/generalassembly/2026-05-08/scova-redistricting-referendum-scott-mcdougle-kelsey)
For the Record
They let three million people vote on it. Then they decided the election didn't count. The maps stay.