Currently, the General Assembly reapportions the congressional, Senate and House of Delegates electoral districts every ten years. The majority party in the Senate and House have traditionally drawn the districts based on past election results, thus giving their candidates a significant advantage in general elections. The resulting districts are often oddly shaped.

The current practice creates a political process that deprives many voters, both Republican and Democratic, of a meaningful choice on Election Day. Because districts are drawn with such a strong advantage to one party or the other it is often difficult to find candidates from the other parties to run. Consequently, 39 members of the House of Delegates and 13 members of the Senate ran unopposed in their last election.

The current practice de facto violates Article II, section 6, of the Virginia Constitution, which requires each electoral district to be "composed of contiguous and compact territory." Although the courts have been loathe to second guess the General Assembly with respect to this requirement, any examination of maps of the current districts reveals that very few of them are actually compact or contiguous.

Finally, the current practice undermines citizens' confidence in the fairness of government. With the result of elections predetermined by the boundaries drawn by partisan law makers, many potential voters don't even bother voting in legislative elections.

This petition is to urge the members of the Privileges and Elections Committee of the Virginia House of Delegates to Approve and report to the full House of Delegates a constitutional amendment establishing an independent commission to reapportion the congressional and General Assembly electoral districts of the Commonwealth starting in 2021.