Redistricting Cost to Virginia: $10 Million

By Tracy Kennedy
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – Now that the governor has approved the General Assembly’s redistricting plans, the State Board of Elections must find millions of dollars to implement the new maps.

“They split over 500 precincts, and we have to equip them,” said Charles Judd, chairman of the State Board of Elections. He estimates that it would cost about $20,000 to equip each of the 500-plus new precincts. That would put the total price tag at more than $10 million.

“This is what you’d call an unfunded mandate,” Judd said.

He said federal funds may be available to help localities prepare for the fall elections, when the  100 members of the House of Delegates, the 40 state senators, all Fairfax County Supervisors and school board members  are up for election. If the federal funds don’t come through, localities will have to raise the money themselves.

The Fairfax County Board of Elections wrote to the governor opposing redistricting plans for the House of Delegates and the State Senate  because of the split districts. They split communities, confuse voters and cost mone to equip.

For the past month, state legislators and the governor have been redrawing the state's political boundaries  (redistricting) because the state grew by a million people in the past 10 years. Virginia's population is now 8 million. It's the 12th largest state.

Most of that  population growth occurred in the swelling Northern Virginia counties of Loudoun and Prince William, that region merited an additional Senate seat and three more House seats.

On April 28, lawmakers  finally passed a resdistricting bill that both Republicans and Democrats tried to draw to their maximum advantage.  The following day, Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the bill. The U.S. Justice Department must now approve the new legislative districts because Virginia and 10 other Southern state are covered by the landmark 1965 Voting Rights law. These states including Virginia have a history of discriminating against black voters.

The General Assembly still must redraw congressional districts.