It accomplishes that goal in part by raising the percentage of voters who are black in the 3rd Congressional District — Virginia’s only district where minorities are in the majority — from nearly 53 to 57 percent. As a result, surrounding districts become more white.
The Senate plan would probably improve the chances of electing Democrats, in part by creating a second district with a sizable percentage of black voters.
The Voting Rights Act requires that Virginia’s new congressional maps, drawn in response to the 2010 Census, include at least one majority-minority district as the current maps do.
Senate Democrats say they think drawing a second “influence district” would ensure black voters have the opportunity to play a role in selecting more winning candidates — and make congressional races more competitive.
“Historically, they’ve tried to limit African American voting influence at the congressional level, by packing all or most of the African Americans they can pack into the 3rd District,” said Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Richmond), who helped draw the Senate’s plan. “This is an attempt to do away with the packing of African-Americans into one district that we have historically seen.”
States must redraw their legislative and congressional maps every 10 years in response to population shifts, to ensure each district contains the same number of people and all state residents have equal representation in Congress.
Districts in Northern Virginia, which has seen tremendous growth in the past 10 years, will grow more compact. The rest of the state will see its districts grow geographically to compensate.
Virginia is one of nine states that must get preapproval for its maps from federal authorities under the 1965 Voting Rights Act because of its history of racial discrimination. The law requires that state’s not dilute black voting strength — or “retrogress” from current plans.
But there is considerable difference of opinion what, exactly, would constitute retrogression.
In the Senate proposal, the percentage of African Americans voters living in the 3rd Congressional District, represented by Rep. Robert C. Scott (D), would drop below 50 percent for the first time since the Department of Justice ordered Virginia to draw a majority-minority district in 1993. But it would remain a sizable nearly 42 percent.
Meanwhile, the 4th Congressional District — which would include much of Richmond and counties to its south — would become majority-minority for the first time.
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