The Virginia Supreme Court has voided a statewide referendum that would have allowed Virginia’s congressional districts to be redrawn for the 2026 U.S. House elections, ruling that the process used to put the proposed amendment before voters violated the state Constitution.
Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, writing for the majority, said the Commonwealth submitted the proposed constitutional amendment “in an unprecedented manner” and violated Virginia’s intervening-election requirement.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” Kelsey wrote.
The ruling leaves the congressional district maps issued by the court in 2021 as the governing maps for Virginia’s 2026 congressional elections.
According to the opinion in the ruling, the General Assembly first approved the proposed amendment on Oct. 31, 2025, after voting had already begun in the 2025 House of Delegates general election. The court said the Virginia Constitution requires a proposed amendment to be approved in two legislative sessions with an intervening House of Delegates election between them.
Lawmakers approved the proposal again during the 2026 regular session. The amendment was then submitted to voters on March 6, 2026, the first day of early voting for the special referendum. Voting ended April 21.
The court said the Virginia Department of Elections reported April 30 that 1,604,276 voters supported the referendum and 1,499,393 opposed it. The majority ruled that the vote could not stand because the constitutional process had not been properly followed.
The proposed amendment would have temporarily suspended Virginia’s redistricting commission process and allowed the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts outside the regular post-census redistricting cycle in response to redistricting actions by other states, according to the opinion.
Chief Justice Powell dissented, joined by Justice Mann and Justice Fulton. The dissent argued that the majority expanded the meaning of “election” in the Virginia Constitution to include the early voting period and said that reading conflicted with Virginia and federal law.
The majority rejected the Commonwealth’s argument that the relevant election meant only Election Day. The court said more than 1.3 million Virginians had already voted by the time lawmakers first approved the proposed amendment on Oct. 31, 2025.
A global media for the latest news, entertainment, music fashion, and more.
