RICHMOND, Va. - Redistricting is a topic that has gotten controversial in Virginia.
Last year Virginia voters approved establishing a bipartisan commission to redraw Virginia’s state legislative districts and congressional districts.
Redistricting is a process done every ten years when new census data comes in.
The commission failed to come to an agreement on the maps and sent the duty to the Virginia Supreme Court.
The court appointed people called ‘special masters’ to draw the districts but now some people are unhappy with their maps.
The state supreme court held public comment meetings last week and the NAACP is calling on them to hold additional ones.
Our area could see a significant change in congressional districts with the state supreme court map proposing removing parts of Norfolk from the Second Congressional District which is currently represented by Elaine Luria.
The proposal would put all of Norfolk in the third district which is represented by Bobby Scott.
Among the people unhappy with this process and proposal is the Virginia NAACP who said the proposed maps would break up minority voting power.
They drew their own maps and sent them to the supreme court for consideration then on Tuesday, the Virginia NAACP held a virtual press conference about redistricting.
Along with its partners, the Virginia NAACP said it is "urging the Supreme Court of Virginia to respect Black communities of interest and protect their opportunity to elect candidates of choice in the redistricting process."
“The census is critical to making sure that our voices are heard and if we don’t get this information out now, then we’ll lose the opportunity of making sure that every voice gets heard and so that’s why it’s so critical that we identify gaps in the process and make it known of how we prepared our maps for a fair election,"
Virginia State Conference NAACP President Robert N. Barnette Jr. said.
Barnette Jr. was joined by representatives of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Hogan Lovells law firm.
You can view the entire press conference in the video player above.
