A U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va has rejected a lawsuit aimed at dissolving Virginia’s 2021 House of Delegates election. Plaintiffs in the case had urged the court to order a new election due to the delay in census data caused by the Covid-19 health crisis.
The 2021 election was conducted using legislative district maps drawn after the 2010 census because updated census data from 2020 was not available to redraw maps in enough time for the scheduled statewide election. The plaintiffs sued the state election board on the basis that conducting the election using the old maps – based on old census data, diluted their votes in contravention to the federal Equal Protection Clause and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The memorandum opinion characterized the plaintiffs’ request as what would be “extreme federal court interference.” Ultimately the court rejected the lawsuit on standing and jurisdiction grounds pointing out that the plaintiffs had claimed an injury that the “election board did not cause and that the Court cannot redress.”
News Coverage: Henricocitizen, Virginia Mercury, VPM.org.
