This plan splits Fairfax County's Woodburn precinct (#717) in half and separates our residents from local FCPS schools, our nearest post office, and our member of Congress who has known our neighborhood for decades.

The most recent version of the GOP-drawn plan does not fix the flaws in the previous versions of this plan that violate the Commission’s stated criteria and Virginia and federal law. First, it violates the federal Voting Rights Act, the Virginia Voting Rights Act, and the redistricting statutes by impermissible diluting Black voting strength. Under the old map, CD3 is majority Black, but in the current map, it is only 43.7% black, which meaningfully reduces the opportunity of Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice. CD4 is also dilutive of Black voters, as it is only 37% Black, significantly down from the district’s current makeup. Second, it fails to recognize communities of interest in central Virginia that should be drawn together. Specifically, Charlottesville and the other counties in the Charlottesville MSA (Albemarle, Fluvanna, Nelson, Greene, and Buckingham) are split into 3 districts. In adddition, Charlottesville and Albemarle have different cultural values, economic interests, and media markets (not merely political preferences as incorrectly suggested by Commissioner Harrell) than the Shenandoah Valley, and thus these counties should not be gerrymandered into CD6. Third, the map does not fairly reflect the overall political preferences of the Commonwealth’s voters, as it results in 5 heavily Republican and 5 heavily Democratic districts, with only a single competitive district (CD2) that leans Republican — it was barely carried by Gov. Northam in 2017 and Sen. Kaine in 2018 despite winning large statewide victories (in the latter case by a double digit margin). It would be politically unfair and violate state law for a plan to result in a 6R-5D split even in election cycles where Democrats win a majority of the statewide vote.

In terms of Richmond and its suburbs, this map is an obvious gerrymander that violates both the letter and the spirit of the Constitutional amendment and laws that created the Commission and mandates that districts by compact and combine communities of interest. Hard pass.

Chesterfield should be with Henrico to maintain communities of interest in Richmond suburbs. This map unduly favors the Republican party because the number of districts they have advantage in does not match Virginia's political leaning at all.

Districts 11 and 7 separate Manassas from other nearby communities like Westchester, Bristow, Gainsville and Haymarket. Manassas, Gainsville, and Haymarket are all connected by community transportation interests like the railroad, VRE, and I -66. The communities all tied to I-66 could be held together.

District 4 is not compact. It stretches from Richmond to the southern border when Richmond and the surrounding region have plenty of population. The district separates Petersburg from adjacent Colonial Heights. The district also doesn't even follow I-95. There is very little reason for a district like this.

This map splits up multiple communities like Roanoke, Lynchburg, Fredericksburg, and Petersburg. Sure all of Lynchburg proper is included in district 6, but by neighboring communities like Rustburg in Campbell County are excluded from District 6. Maps drawn this way separate communities. This isn't an accident. Fredericksburg in District 7 is separated from adjacent Bellvue in District 1. Petersburg in D4 is separated from Colonial Heights in D5. There is no effort to hold communities together, this pattern is a clear intention to separate them.

This is a flagrant gerrymander. I thought the point of this commission was to stop gerrymandering?

To put Fluvanna County into the same district as counties on the beach of the Chesapeake is ridiculous. It's really just as bad, if not worse than the current 5th District. Fluvanna county is a community of interest that is completely dependent on Charlottesville-Albemarle county and to remove us from it is a detriment to our community. This is not an issue with the politics of the district at all. It has everything to do with removing us from our community of interest and putting us in a spread out district of many communities of interest that we have nothing to do with.