Blocking Election Reform in Virginia

I was pleased to see The Post address the issue of fairness in the redistricting process ["A Chance for Common Sense," editorial, Nov. 10].

Since the founding of the republic, it has been a ritual for the majority party to redraw political districts to serve its own interests rather than the interests of the voters it is supposed to represent.

Unfortunately, this problem has gotten much worse with the advent of powerful software tools that allow the drawing of district borders with unprecedented precision.

The solution for this problem is clearly a nonpartisan redistricting body. I am glad to hear that Del. Brian J. Moran (D-Alexandria) plans to introduce such legislation in the upcoming Virginia legislative session.

However, The Post failed to point out that last year, Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) introduced such legislation and was able to get enough support from the moderate Republicans in the state Senate to pass it.

Unfortunately, that legislation failed to move forward in the House of Delegates because Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) made a motion to kill the bill, before it was even debated by the House. While a narrower margin between Democrats and Republicans in the House makes the passage of nonpartisan redistricting more likely, it still won't happen until officials such as Mr. Albo begin to act as statesmen who put the public interest before their personal interest when representing their districts.

BOB PEARSON

Fairfax Station