I am not sure what priorities and interests these regions have in common with Richmond, surrounding Central VA areas - but I do not think these interests will be properly led or protected with this designation because of economic, industrial, and geographical differences between the two areas.

I support the need for redistricting. But, it is a serious mistake to move the area between Route One and the Potomac River (to the East of Ft Belvoir) to a new district (District 19). This area is adjacent to George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estate. Many neighborhoods actually are part of the original estate. The two main roads through the area are the "Mt Vernon Memorial Highway" and "Old Mount Vernon Road." Washington's original Grist Mill (part of Mt Vernon Estate) is in this area. The current proposal ignores the common interests and issues this area shares with District 8! The public school for our children is Mt. Vernon High School (in District 8). Our shopping, our churches, our community organizations are primarily centered in District 8. Please consider moving this area (to the east of Ft Belvoir) back where it belongs, District 8.

I read through the Special Masters' report and I didn't get a strong sense that there was a thorough understanding of what the communities of interest were. This is especially true with central Virginia. Central Virginia seems to be the pool of population the Special Masters used to balance population in outlying districts. Districts need to be drawn to both balance population and shared interests. Gerrymandered districts with weird shapes and carve-outs aren't desirable, but the criterion of "compactness" is also being misused and appears arbitrary in many cases. A wider swath of land to incorporate more people who still share common interests might be warranted rather than arbitrarily dividing parts of suburbs and cities to be included in rural areas to balance population.

Including Suffolk and territory west of Franklin in CD2 does not make sense in terms of interests/priorities. It would make more sense to include Suffolk in CD3 and either include or exclude Southampton fully instead of cutting it through the middle

Meant to click dislike of the current map based on my prior feedback and was supposed to say *King George County*

The placement of the 11th Congressional District wholly within Fairfax County makes sense however, living in Lorton, I am troubled by the proposal to split my community between three Congressional Districts. I find myself for the first time in the 7th CD but about 200 yards from the 11th CD and less than a mile from the 8th CD. This makes no sense. This proposal also means that the Supervisor for the Mount Vernon Magisterial District will have to deal with three Congressmembers, one of which would be new and only represent three precincts in Fairfax County. That will unquestionably reduce the quality of the representation the Lorton Community and the Mount Vernon District will receive. My community should not be split and historically has always been part of either the 8th CD or the 11th CD. Those Fairfax County precincts that are proposed to go to the 7th CD should remain in the 8th CD or be placed in the 11th CD as they were prior to 2010. We have nothing in common with a district anchored in Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Prince William Counties. CHANGES THAT WOULD FIX THE ABOVE ISSUE: The precincts in Fairfax County that are proposed for the 7th CD must go back to either the 8th CD or 11th CD. That population can be replaced by returning to the practice of some western Fairfax County precincts being placed in the 10th CD. If those three precincts proposed for the 7th CD remain in the 8th CD, some Fairfax County precincts that are currently proposed for the 8th CD would need to be changed to the 11th CD so that the 11th CD precincts on the west of the County could be moved to the 10th. For this reason, it might be simplest to place them all in the 11th CD. If the population supports it, the ideal solution would be to keep Westgate Precinct (currently proposed for the 7th CD) in the 8th CD since it is separated from the Lorton Community by Fort Belvoir and is in the Mount Vernon area of Alexandria which is in the 8th CD. Then move Lorton and Gunston Precincts (currently proposed for the 7th CD) along with Belvoir Precinct (currently proposed to remain in the 8th CD) to the 11th CD. This would keep all the precincts located in Lorton (Lorton is one community on both sides of I-95) in the 11th CD and leave the Westgate in the 8th CD with the rest of Alexandria/Mount Vernon. The three Town of Herndon precincts in western Fairfax County have approximately the same population as the three precincts that are proposed to go into the 7th CD. Moving these precincts to the 10th CD, where they were prior to 2010, keeps this community of interest together while at the same time solves the problem of two spit communities in the east by reunifying both the Lorton and Alexandria/Mount Vernon communities. The population that the 7th CD would lose, and the 10th CD would gain due to these changes, can be adjusted by shifting some of the Fredericksburg suburbs in Spotsylvania County from the 10th CD to the 7th CD. Those suburbs have more in common with Fredericksburg and Stafford County than they do with Leesburg and Loudoun County. Therefore, such a configuration will result in better representation.

Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford constitute a community of interest deserving of proper representation. I live in Radford, work in Blacksburg and I shop, socialize and attend religious events in Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Radford.

None

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The proposed congressional map seems to be taking populations into account over communities, which will have drastic consequences in representation. The current CD7 is obliterated and subsequently carved up without consideration for the actual societal impact and daily functioning. The western suburban area of Richmond, including Henrico and Chesterfield, is in and of itself a community inextricably tied through infrastructure and common economic and social concerns. Splitting up this region will effectively silence the voices of the suburban voters and put us at the mercy of rural voters. Additionally, the fact that the incumbent female congressional representatives are specifically affected gives the impression that this map is not a good faith effort in redistricting. Further evidence of a questionable agenda is the packing of Black voters into CD4. I hope that my concerns and those of the others making similar comments are taken seriously and a better, more equitable redistricting plan is presented.

I dislike strongly that the western suburbs of Richmond have been broken up when we share real, tangible, concrete interests. This area of the current 7th district has led the way in problem-solving for the whole state. Fracturing it eliminates that positive influence on policy. While I do agree that changes need to be made to the current structure, this change is a net negative to good governance in Virginia.

I have serious concerns with the new districts, as drawn.

I have very serious concerns with how our region has been split apart in the proposed Congressional maps. The current proposal would carve my portion of western Henrico County, which is currently in CD7, into CD1 with largely rural counties stretching all the way to the eastern shore. It feels very much as though my community has been treated as simply a way to increase population in a district for another, disparate portion of the commonwealth. The Richmond suburbs, including Henrico and Chesterfield, share very real and tangible connections – economically, socially, through public transport infrastructure, and in many more ways that you have already heard about. Another example I would like to share is how our region is tied together through the provision of health services. When I have sought medical care for my children through the VCU health system over the course of the past year, we have been seen by providers at the main hospital in the City of Richmond, at satellite offices in Henrico, and as recently as Monday at a facility in Chesterfield. To split these three geographically close and inexorably tied localities into three separate Congressional districts (CD1, CD4, and CD5) simply does not make sense by any measure of what constitutes a community of interest. I strongly support the approach taken towards CD7 in community drawn maps that have been proposed. Many of them, including the Farkas map, do a far superior job of recognizing central Virginia as a region with shared interests – particularly with the east/west orientation of CD7 as they have proposed compared to the north/south orientation of the current CD7 or the effective drawing and quartering of the Richmond region in the court’s draft maps.

The 9th district should include Radford, Christiansburg, and Blacksburg, but no parts of Roanoke/Salem. The New River Valley (NRV) has unique interests and concerns - some related to the local universities, and some revolving around our lives in a mostly rural, moutainous environment surrounding the New River. It makes no sense to add random parts to an existing community of interest.

Franklin County has been in the 5th Congressional District for over 100 years and likely has always been here since the district was first created. Its orientation is not to its West. The 9th should stay west of the Blue Ridge. If its necessary to come East, Salem and Roanoke are more likely targets.

Dividing Charlottesville - an important community of interest - is insulting. But more importantly, dividing Albemarle County into two congressional districts, 5 and 10, weakens the voice of our community. The Charlottesville community plays an important economic role in Virginia; the University of Virginia is an enormous employer in the state. The division of Albemarle County splits important resources (e.g., mass transit system, CHO airport, etc.) into different districts, which will negatively affect our community.

• Many others have spoken and have written quite eloquently about what has been done to Henrico, Chesterfield, Spotsylvania, Louisa, and Albemarle Counties. • In discussing their methodology, the masters mention the word “Culpeper” only once, and “Piedmont” only twice. We in Culpeper are horrified to know that others consider us part of “Northern Virginia.” The current 7th Congressional District is not mentioned at all. It’s as though we never existed. Central Virginia has been a community of interest for many, many years, and now it has been completely eliminated and scattered among other proposed districts with which it has little in common. • Loudon County, the megalopolis anchor of the proposed 10th Congressional District is essentially a part of that northern region that is completely focused on the federal city of Washington, DC. • The rest of us pride ourselves on our rural heritage, and our focus on agriculture, timber, natural resources, and our small-town environments. • Loudon County’s mostly urban population numbers more than 413,000 – more than twice the combined populations of Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Madison, Orange, and Greene Counties, and the rural portions of Albemarle and Spotsylvania Counties that have been allocated to the new 10th District. • This, and its number of registered voters dwarf the entirety of the rest of the district, thereby effectively disenfranchising the rest of us. • We have nothing in common with Loudon County. We don’t go to Loudon County for anything. Instead, we almost always, and exclusively, go to Charlottesville or Fredericksburg for shopping, dining, healthcare, services, and recreation. Loudon, far to the north, is in a galaxy far, far away. • Finally, and crucially, in this day and age, it is simply unacceptable to revise our districts with the effect of disadvantaging all three of Virginia’s women members of its Congressional delegation, and in particular, completely removing Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger from the present 7th Congressional District, and the 10-county constituency for which she has been working so arduously for the past four years. Not only that, but she has also become quite well regarded by members of both sides of the aisle for working effectively and in a bipartisan basis. Her legislative accomplishments have been significant, and she has become renowned for the effectiveness of her district services to 7th District residents. To gerrymander her out of her district is simply outrageous. • I join with the other speakers in urging the Supreme Court to reconsider the dismantling of our 7th Congressional District. Geography doesn’t vote, people vote. I thank the Court for the opportunity to comment on this important process.

See attached file.

It makes no sense to split Albemarle unless the aim is to dilute the votes of the Charlottesville metropolitan area. Albemarle and Charlottesville should be kept together. Albemarle has little in common with rural Southside; it has more in common with Richmond's western suburbs and exurbs, as 64 is a commuter corridor. Alternatively, NoVa exurbs and the Charlottesville MSA would be a more sensible combination. Please see the Farkas map (attached here) that is part of the December 16th submission; it places Charlottesville/Albemarle in a much better arrangement. Thank you.

After being a resident of Virginia Beach for 22 years, I disagree with the new map for the second congressional district. Splitting up the different military and naval instilations which are apart of the current congressional district would be a mistake. I believe that the current composition is much better than the proposed new map, as the vital naval and military instillations which are apart of the district should have the same representation. Simply, the new map would be creating too many differences and problems for the south side region compared to the old. The new district would not be representative of the interests of the region as a whole. It is obvious that the most important interest of this region is our military bases and our veterans. They do not deserve to be split, and it will affect our region if the most important socio-economic interest of our region, our military strength, is divided between two different congressional districts. The redrawing of congressional district two is vital to our district, and the continued growth of the cities and municipalities within this district. It is a thriving district with a bright future, but the currently drawn map could thwart that. Additionally, sea level rise and climate change will cause severe damages to the district in the near future, and the current composition of the district should not be split up, as we will face many of the same issues and problems, and we need the same representation.

I was dismayed to learn that Congressional District 5 is to include the Midlothian area of Chesterfield County. Although the Midlothian area may lie contiguous to Powhatan, Amilia, and numerous other primarily rural areas, there are few other areas of overlap and numerous significant differences in other aspects, including economics, employment, community and social interests, transportation and lifestyles. Having grown up in a farming community of less than 700 people, I can attest to the significant differences in activities, interests, and needs of rural versus suburban communities in the areas of health care, education, public services, and infrastructure. I believe these large disparities would be detrimental for both areas, but catastrophic to Midlothian, which would be overwhelmed by the needs and interests of the rural areas. This current plan clearly does not meet the criteria of forming communities of like interest when drawing new maps for redistricting in Virginia.

As a longtime resident of Norfolk, I was looking forward to the redrawing of lines that would put my current District 3 residence in its natural community of interest with the rest of the city of Norfolk and Virginia Beach in District 2. While treating Norfolk as a single entity has undoubted benefits, separating the entire city from its natural ally VB makes it a stepchild of District 3. Just as Hampton and Newport News on the Peninsula are natural partners, so the area's two most populous cities, Norfolk and VB, the region's centers of business, culture and tourism cannot be separated as their mutual interests are interlaced; in common also are their military, health, and environmental interests. Likewise, their mayors have long collaborated closely, and regional organizations have typically used the cities' combined interests as their base for action. If all of Norfolk cannot be included in District 2, then it should return to the previous division that included its military bases and the shoreline. While my preference would be for the city of Norfolk to have a single representative, its interests are ill-served by incorporation with the Peninsula districts. Similarly, the rural areas south and west of Norfolk have little in common with VB and would be better served in a different configuration. Thank you for your attention to the Hampton Roads region.

Salem was founded to keep the residents free of Roanoke City politics. It would seem polite to maintain that division. Please keep Salem in the 9th district, swap with Bedford county to balance the 6th if necessary.

I have been a resident of Virginia Beach for 20 years and my husband for 55 years. I am offering my disapproval of the proposed new maps for the 2nd Congressional District. Anyone living in this area is more than aware how vital our military and veteran presence is to the socio-economic strength of Hampton Roads. As part of CD2 we house in Norfolk the Naval Station, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek and in Virginia Beach we house the Oceana Naval Air Station. At this time, they are represented within the same congressional district which makes sense in that these bases work closely together and have service members who live and work within both cities. Separating the bases into separate districts would deny them the same federal representation and infringe on their ability to advocate for their common interests. In addition, this area of Norfolk that is presently in CD2, shares another common interest with Virginia Beach – environmental concerns. The rising sea level is a very serious concern for the localities in CD2. It is imperative we have the shared representation in congress to advocate for our very real and present danger along our coast. Although I do see many reforms in compactness and contiguity in many of the proposed maps across Virginia, I am very dismayed by the lack of both compactness and contiguity in the present proposed map of the 2nd congressional district. Aside from how these maps affect our military presence and our environmental concerns, there is also the logistical concern how far the bottom tip of Franklin is to the tip on the Eastern Shore. It has been explained in the special map makers Memo that concentrating on the criteria for congressional districts surrounding the CD2, “… left few options for the 2nd District … this district loses functional contiguity …” With all due respect, I feel with our very important military presence and our very dire environmental concerns, I think the redrawing of our 2nd District deserves greater consideration.

Please redraw these districts and include the entirety of the BATTLEFIELD District of Spotsylvania county (22408; 22407; 22553) with DISTRICT 7 and Fredericksburg. Our interests as growing suburb of Fredericksburg would be served. Being placed in a district that will focus on serving the needs of rural Virginians would be a gross mistake and disservice to Battlefield District citizens.

I vehemently disagree with the Battlefield District of Spotsylvania County being included with a rural northwestern district. Our issues would not be served at all. The Battlefield District is a suburb of FREDERICKSBURG District 7, and share similar interests, issues, growth patterns. Please change this map.

Please redraw these districts and include the entirety of the BATTLEFIELD District of Spotsylvania county (22408; 22407; 22553) with DISTRICT 7 and Fredericksburg. Our interests as growing suburb of Fredericksburg would be served. Being placed in a district that will focus on serving the needs of rural Virginians would be a gross mistake and disservice to Battlefield District citizens.

This redistricts parts of the Battlefield District (or zips 22407 & 22553) to be with the senate district that extends west and all the way NORTH to LOUDON county. The population in our zip codes have suburban and urban interests and issues and not rural issues. The majority of this NEW district will be rural and our representative would be much less likely to be able to balance addressing the concerns of our population. Our interests are more aligned with District 7 the Fredericksburg, STAFFORD area. Please CHANGE this.

Norfolk and Virginia Beach together form a community of interest. Many commenters have already addressed the need for cohesion based on military and environmental considerations. In addition, Norfolk and Virginia Beach have a long history of residents of one city commuting to work in the other city. The latest Census estimates are that over 66,000 workers commute between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. That represents 20% of employed persons who live in one of the two cities and commute to the other. In addition, local governments and human service non-profit agencies have a long history of addressing some of society's most pressing needs on a regional basis. Whether the need is ending homelessness, combating food insecurity, or helping senior citizens maintain their independence, Norfolk and Virginia Beach have long been active participants in these efforts. Having one advocate for both of these cities builds on these strengths.

Doesn't it make sense to put more of Spotsylvania in the 10th? The 7th can do with a northward expansion, while the 6th can do with some of Albermarle to balance things.

Everyone on the opposite side of Old Mill Rd sits on the property that was once owned by our founding father. To cut them out and attach them with communities which are vastly different from ours and who split by a military base is ridiculous. Whoever is responsible for altering the boundaries in this way is certainly not aware of the history of this area nor the connections between these neighbors and neighborhoods. Utilize Fort Belvoir as a boundary instead as it would make much more sense. Logic is sorely missing from this map.

I have great concerns about how the new District 2 has been changed. First, it makes no sense to separate the largest Naval Base in the world into 2 parts. It would have an impact on the consistency of representation for both active and retired military in that area. And the change in size of the District from roughly 281 sq. miles to 402 sq. miles would make it even harder for the Representative to visit or attend events in person than it is today. This would critically effect how a Representative would understand the lives and issues of their constituents. And, it would be heart breaking to lose the Representation of a former Naval Commander and a brilliant woman...not by votes but by the stroke of a pen! Please take another look at this District and actually District 3 also as it looks like you have made bad choices there as well. Thank you for listening.

• VA-10 should be anchored in Loudoun County and Prince Willam County and remain a Northern Virginia district. Instead, Loudoun County is paired with rural counties in central Virginia that share no connection to suburban Loudoun. • People don’t commute from Loudoun to Albemarle County. Rather, most commute on highway 28 and I-66. • CD-10 is currently a district with a vast handful of its constituents being federal workers and/or DC commuters, thus why this needs to remain a northern Virginia district.

In some cases, the districts drawn use city and county boundaries which have little to do with commuting patterns and community relationships that link people in current social and economic realities. County lines are centuries old, and mostly irrelevant to how people relate to each other. Such is the case in the drawing of the new 2nd district, which includes new rural areas to the west and south, and eliminates urban and suburban areas to the north and east that are culturally and economically much more congruent with the needs and interests of Virginia Beach residents.

I object to Norfolk being removed from the 2nd CD and being lumped with the 3rd CD with which we share far fewer common interests than we do with Va. Beach. A CD that includes Norfolk and Va. Beach is a natural and common alliance, and perhaps should include Hampton as well as the Eastern Shore. The case for Norfolk being in the 2nd CD is very straight forward indeed, it hosts the world's largest Naval Base, while Va. Beach hosts Oceana NAS, DAm Neck and other military installations, with personnel living in one community and often working in the other; both Norfolk and Va. Beach share the same kind of environmental issues with rising sea levels, wetlands, and flooding for instance. They share common transportation issues as well with I-64 and I-264 being two of the better known issues. Given that Norfolk also has many issues especially with regards to military installations and transportation (HRBT) with Hampton, it makes sense to consider putting Hampton, Norfolk, and Va. Beach in one CD, as even Va. Beach cannot get to the Peninsula without going thru HRBT. There is much to be said for keeping Norfolk in the 2nd CD, especially the Northern half of the city where the base, HRBT and Norfolk International Airport are located. The map as presently drawn is just not a good map, it splits far too many communities of interests. Far better to split the city in half with the southern half being in the 3rd CD given its common interests with Portsmouth for instance (the Downtown and Midtown tunnels come to mind, as do urban issues) while the Northern half of Norfolk should indeed remain in the 2nd CD.

I object to Norfolk being removed from the 2nd CD and being lumped with the 3rd CD with which we share far fewer common interests than we do with Va. Beach. A CD that includes Norfolk and Va. Beach is a natural and common alliance, and perhaps should include Hampton as well as the Eastern Shore. The case for Norfolk being in the 2nd CD is very straight forward indeed, it hosts the world's largest Naval Base, while Va. Beach hosts Oceana NAS, DAm Neck and other military installations, with personnel living in one community and often working in the other; both Norfolk and Va. Beach share the same kind of environmental issues with rising sea levels, wetlands, and flooding for instance. They share common transportation issues as well with I-64 and I-264 being two of the better known issues. Given that Norfolk also has many issues especially with regards to military installations and transportation (HRBT) with Hampton, it makes sense to consider putting Hampton, Norfolk, and Va. Beach in one CD, as even Va. Beach cannot get to the Peninsula without going thru HRBT. There is much to be said for keeping Norfolk in the 2nd CD, especially the Northern half of the city where the base, HRBT and Norfolk International Airport are located. The map as presently drawn is just not a good map, it splits far too many communities of interests. Far better to split the city in half with the southern half being in the 3rd CD given its common interests with Portsmouth for instance (the Downtown and Midtown tunnels come to mind, as do urban issues) while the Northern half of Norfolk should indeed remain in the 2nd CD.

Norfolk should remain in District 2. Norfolk and Virginia Beach share work/resident populations, including a shared military presence. This redistricting would cut our representative out of her district and would also create a racial and ethnic imbalance that disproportionately favors white voters.

I believe that removing Norfolk from the second CD makes no sense. If you are going to remove any area from the second it should be the eastern shore because they have little in common with the rest of the district. On the other hand, Norfolk and Virginia Beach have much in common.

The fracturing of the 9th district further exemplifies that SWVA needs are being overlooked again. By taking out areas that are part of the 9th, like Salem and Craig County, and extending it into parts so far north to gain population numbers, it further disconnects SWVA by changing the commonalities that the 9th has already developed in its current configuration to gain funding and develop solutions to our challenges district wide. Extending the 9th excessively to the north as this map does creates a geographical area that is too large for a representative and staff to effectively and efficiently provide representational coverage. In addition, this change makes far SWVA seem even further apart by space and by similarities from those that are supposed to be “represented” by the same district. Keep the current 9th District intact!

I have no expertise in redistricting. I can only imagine how difficult the task can be and empathize with those who undertake it. However, it seems to me that the outcome should make every attempt to enhance functionality and in general be more satisfying than its predecessor. I can tell you emphatically that this has not been achieved. Supplanting one plan with another is not progress unless the difference makes an appreciable and positive difference. In this case, the difference is truly regressive. For that to happen in the most populous city in the Commonwealth will only serve to cast doubt on the entire effort in Virginia.

I dislike that Salem is drawn out and more northern territory is added to the 9th District. The further north the lines go the less similar the population in the district becomes. Also the more distant extreme Southwest Virginia (land past Bristol) becomes from the rest of Virginia. These new lines make it extremely difficult for a representative to stay in touch with constituents. Keep Salem in our district and don’t spread the 9th out so far geographically that we in Southwest Virginia are more like Tennessee than our own district.

Radford, Christiansburg and Blacksburg constitute one community in the New River Valley. Their division fails to take into account the shared transportation systems, the regional employment/education centers of Virginia Tech and Radford University and various activities that are shared within the county and not with suburbs around another city. ● The map drawers to minimize county splits maximized splitting in HD 42 at the expense of Pulaski and Montgomery County Communities of Interest. ○ Dividing not just Pulaski County but just as well the Town of Pulaski with a district that stretches to Tennessee. ○ Dividing the two population centers of Montgomery County whose boundaries are not apparent to anyone’s daily life in the region ● Compactness of the district was set aside at the expense of folks living in Montgomery county. ● The largest population of College Students in Virginia constitute a community of interest and deserve to be kept in one district.

Breaking up District 9 is not only taking more funding and awareness from our needs. SWVA is often last to receive necessary teacher & community funding, upgrades to infrastructures, and transportation needs. We can NOT afford this cut, this disconnect! Keep Radford, the New River Valley and our part of Roanoke Valley together!

I vehemently disagree with the Battlefield District of Spotsylvania county being included with a rural northwestern district. Our issue would not be served at all. The Battlefield District is a suburb of Fredericksburg District 7, sharing similar interests, issues, and growth patterns. please change the district lines on this map.

Please redraw these districts and include the entirety of the BATTLEFIELD District of Spotsylvania county (22408; 22407; 22553) with DISTRICT 7 and Fredericksburg. Our interests as growing suburb of Fredericksburg would be served. Being placed in a district that will focus on serving the needs of rural Virginians would be a gross mistake and disservice to Battlefield District citizens.

I support the idea of making District 7 the entirety of PW and Stafford counties. I recommend, however, that the three Fairfax County precincts be removed and replaced with the three northernmost precincts in Spotsylvania County, Precincts 201 Wilderness School, 202 Elys Ford, and 303 River Bend.

Anything that increases the likelihood of send Republicans to Congress speeds the death of small-d democracy and ensures the elimination of small-r republican governance. Judges know this, Redistricting experts understand it. GOP politicians thrive on it. For the sake of ever holding free and fair elections, district out as many Republican candidates as possible. The alternative is theocratic fascism.

As a resident of the extreme western part of District 9, I feel we are too often forgotten and overlooked. I fear that splitting Salem from our district would only serve to perpetuate that. The district needs to remain as it has been for the sake of the constituents.

VA-1 splits off Richmond MSA counties, splits off Hampton Rds MSA counties, FAILS compactness tests with Rock 0.3198 and Polsby-Popper 0.3138 by Princeton Gerrymandering Project (<0.32 in Va ave C 0.42-0.32), and can fail Levitt @Brennan Center Length-Width test against sausage districts. See Va Redist. Commission Citizen Map#164 for Eleven Compact Congressional Districts.

I was station on the Naval Base in Norfolk and at Little Creek serving on four different ships. It has been essential to have one member of congress represent both Norfolk and Virginia Beach Naval and Marine Corp installations. Anything that happens that involves the military in Norfolk and Va Beach needs to have one voice or representation. Sometimes an immediate response is necessary. Coordinating a joint response between different members of Congress takes too much time. I am a retired Navy Senior Chief and I know how important it is to have one voice in Congress. Please adjust the lines to include both Norfolk and Va Beach being represented by one member of Congress.

Stafford county in a district that includes PWC and Loudoun county makes no sense. We may work north, but are oriented toward the south and west in outlook. Few here want to be considered part of Northern VA. I got to looking at the whole state, and little of the map makes sense. Try again.

The movement of the 7th Congressional District away from Henrico and the counties to the West of the City of Richmond minimizes the political power of Black voters that live in those Western counties. Currently, Black and white voters that live in Henrico are able to make common cause and form voting coalitions with Black voters in the more rural areas of the district. This helps us all to elect our candidate of choice to Congress and influence national policy. Splitting us into the 1st, the 4th, and the 5th Districts takes away our opportunity to vote together and thus advocate for policies which appeal to our shared economic and social interests.

As proposed the 7th District would seriously impact our current quality of life on several levels. One of Stafford County’s many appeals has always been a homestead atmosphere with generations of farmers and families that share profound beliefs and principles contrary to what has overtaken Northern Virginia. Nothing could have spoken more deliberately to this point than our most recent elections. Now here we are, a mere month later, looking at possible governance that neither respects, nor has the passion to represent us as we deserve. With all due respect our votes and our voices must be heard loudly and clearly. We DO NOT want to be associated, nor affiliated with Norther Virginia. We DO NOT want Northern Virginia failed, liberal policies defining our and our children’s lives and we DO NOT want the current climate of Northern Virginia impacting and restricting our quality of life as they have, to this point, so blatantly done.

I object to the redrawing of District 2, in which I have resided for over 25 years. The current district combines areas that share common commercial activity, interests, and the concerns related to our military installations and our proximity to water (the ocean and the Chesapeake Bay). Dividing it up as the proposed J-hook plan does dilutes those populations/concerns, while at the same time packing much of the African-American/minority populations into one district (3) and diluting their influence. Both for those reasons and for geographical compactness, it makes much more sense not to carve out the city of Norfolk as separate from Virginia Beach.

The map completely dilutes the voices of those in Richmond and the suburbs surrounding, putting us in districts that we really don't have anything in common.

The Spotsylvania County portion of this map that includes 22407 and 22553 does not make sense to be aligned with northwestern area indicated up to Loudon County. The issues and interests of the majority of that NW area are more rurally oriented while all parts of 22407 and 22553 being closer to 95 and highly commuter oriented are drastically different. We are much more aligned with District 1 extending down the 95 corridor. You do a disservice to these citizens to include us in that rurally oriented District. Sections of Spotsylvania west of Brock Road would be well served but those east would be forced to cow tow with rural interest directly misaligned with suburbia. It’s an issue we currently deal with in Spotsylvania county - please do not make it worse.

As a taxpaying citizen of Chesterfield county, this looks to dilute the voting power of POC's that reside in the area. Most of us are interwoven into the counties surrounding us through either work, community development or social spending. This map essentially makes it a mute point to participate in the voting process that we are literally fighting to keep!

Splitting Henrico and Chesterfield into multiple Congressional districts does a disservice to constituents in this region as we are all similar communities of interest. Please reconsider this split so that these communities are effectively represented.

I am writing to petition the redistricting courts to not divide the Mount Vernon community of Northern Virginia in half. The maps that have been drawn for the Congressional District 8 and the Senate District 34 seem to do just that. Congressional District 8 map is especially bad, as citizens of Mount Vernon are now split, with the part split away going into a district that contains both Haymarket and Fredericksburg, which are communities with very different focuses. It is more logical to continue to maintain the area north of the Occoquan River as a part of the Mount Vernon District, and also to maintain the Mount Vernon Estate in this district. All of our children attend Fairfax County Schools, and we should all be represented in the State Senate as one. I realize that this change will require a rebalancing of Districts 7, 8 and 11, but I think that this could be accomplished, while still not ripping apart long standing communities of interest in any of those Districts.

10 should go no farther south than Warenton. There is no common interest with Loudon past there. This basically disenfranchises everybody south of Warenton as we will be drowned out by the Sea of Northern Virginia. This Map needs to completely go back to the drawing board.

Louisa County has very little in common with most of the other counties included in the 1st District, and including Louisa County in a district that reaches halfway across the state does not meet the compactness criterion.

I would like to point out the odd, dog-legged shape of CD2. This is not a good example of compact, normally-shaped districts. It appears that CD3 was cut-out looking at the minority vote and CD2 was formed using numbers of voters instead of looking at the military voting interest. Separating Norfolk/Virginia Beach when they have the military, flooding, and tourism interests in common is very curious. I suggest you pair the Eastern Shore with areas west of them. Then put Norfolk back into CD2. And remove the rural areas west of Virginia Beach, as they have little in common with the city. Common interests seem to be lacking in CD2 across the board.

I agree with other comments that the split of Albemarle does not make sense. I will only add that it does not follow the Special Masters' own preference of "nesting" State Senate and House of Delegates seats within Congressional districts. The fact that the State Senate seat and the House of Delegates seat for Albemarle remains whole seems to be an admission that the split at the Congressional level does not make sense.

Please see the Farkas Map which outlines more cohesive sensible districts. Cutting Charlottesville and Albemarle in half is indefensible: the Farkas map remedies this. Charlottesville has been gerrymandered undemocratically for a decade. The Farkas map will finally present Charlottesville and Albemarle with a chance at real representation which we have been denied.

You have taken the western edge of Henrico County and put it in the 1st district. This puts us with counties that we have no shared economic, transportation of community interest with. We should stay with Henrico county, Richmond and Chesterfield County. I believe this does a disservice to the voters in Western Henrico. Please consider putting us with people which we share common interest.

The Southside of Hampton Roads is dominated by Navy Bases. It would seem to me that their would be a priority to have one congressional representative to speak to the needs of the families who serve our country. Also, the concentration of Black households into district 3 seriously diminishes their political impact. The geography of district 2 alone is daunting. To drive from one end to another is too far a distance for one representative. Districts 2 and 3 must be reconsidered.

I am a resident of Giles County, but I often work in Montgomery County. There are many of us in this position and I see this district as one New River Valley community. The proposed redistricting does not acknowledge the fact that our employment and education centers at Virginia Tech and Radford University as well as the local Volvo and Celanese manufacturing centers draw from this broad New River Valley community. Our Church in Pearisburg has several families from Pulaski and our local baseball team is worth driving out to Pulaski for (Go River Turtles!). Health care, entertainment, and employment make this a cohesive district which is truly interdependent. Dividing this community is not in our interest, nor in the interest of our state.

Thank you to the special masters for doing a better job than the commission was able to do statewide, but the job is NOT DONE YET. Some areas are logically now in more condensed and reasonable districts, but a few are made worse by splitting communities of interest unnecessarily. I am sure there are others that must be dealt with also, but in Albemarle County, the map splits our community right down the middle. Northern and southern Albemarle do not function independently from each other, and people who live in Albemarle often travel in and out of Charlottesville, and Charlottesvillians to the County and back. Our community of interest is the entire County with Charlottesville surrounded within. Across the state with this map, county lines have been respected in almost all locales, so why not for Albemarle? This work on this map is getting there but is simply not yet done. Its being better than a previous version is not an acceptable reason to stop work until it is the best it can be for all across the state. Splitting a jurisdiction, and in the case of Crozet, splitting a concise small community, in half devalues our citizens and adversely impacts our ability to advocate collectively for the needs of our community. I am sure that is not what you intend, so let's fix it. Please do not stop at this point and marginalize Albemarle and Charlottesville citizens unnecessarily. This can be fixed. One alternative has already been drawn by another citizen and you can view it in the map submitted by Theodore Bloechle. Maybe other solutions exist also. Please keep the entirety of Albemarle, including the city of Charlottesville, together, and attach us to District 10. Thank you.

As a business owner in the 8th district; I find it confusing why such a niche community is being broken up. I feel that it will take years to recover. Breaking the momentum currently established to better the area (with all of the organizations collaborating for a better future) is a horrible idea. I urge you to reconsider!

This map isolates Mount Vernon and will make us a minority to the needs of communities we have nothing in common with. Keep Mount Vernon in District 8 where we belong.

My county, Goochland, has nothing in common with the Chesapeake Bay counties. I would make more sense to: 1) Extend the boundaries West to include all of Charlottesville (and therefore don’t break-up that area and dilute their power). This create an I-64 corridor. 2) Remove the bay and coastal area 3) Add Chesterfield and possibly Powhatan, if needed To compensate, give the proposed District 1 coastal areas to the Eastern shore’s district Number 2. Add the Western-most areas of district 2 to District 4, to compensate for lost population. Another benefit of that exchange is that it fixes the need for any representative of district 2 to drive around or through district 3 to get to their constituents West of VA Beach. That makes a lot more sense. District yellow 5 and brown 4 can shift East (This is kind of a counter-clockwise shifting of districts 1, 5, 4, and 2.) This can also fix District 10, since it oddly has fast growing Loudoun, all the way across rural counties, to half of Charlottesville. The map should be changed, to include Northern Virginia - Clark county, or more. This is the fast growing Northern Virginia suburbs.

This proposed split of south Mt. Vernon from District 8 to 7 makes absolutely no sense to the residents of Mt. Vernon. We live here in Mt. Vernon, not in Fredericksburg or Stafford. Whoever came up with such "brilliant" plan to cut us off from historically and properly assigned Mt. Vernon district must take into consideration the opinions of the local residents. I've lived here for 20+ years and see no relevance with the issues of District 7 to us, the residents of Mt. Vernon. Please take another look and make things right!

It is disheartening that people who have been disenfranchised continue to be denied representation. Based on the maps, you are giving all the black people in Norfolk to Congressman Scott and setting Virginia Beach up to be represented by a Republican in the 3rd district. This is foul play.

My SCV testimony is attached. I testified 12/15 on the inadequacies of the draft map.

I concurred with another comment about this spot. I believe that area west of I-495 should be assigned to District 11 and have I-495 highway to serve as a district boundary.

I concurred with another comment about using I-95 highway to Richmond as a boundary between District 11 and 8

I would like to suggest this to go to District 11 which makes sense based on I-495 boundary and uniformness of the boundary line.

I would like to have southeastern of District 11 to follow 495 highway because 495 acts a man-made division between East and West Springfield. I recommend the southeastern District 11 boundary to stop before the I-495 intersects with I-395 highway and the I-95 South highway.

Please keep Roanoke County in the same district, no matter which. I note that lots of metro areas are split. This will not benefit the residents or redistricting.

I totally agree with the comment made by David Howell, who writes: "Instead of doing any redistricting I think all that needs to be done is to force people to only vote in the district where they are a permanent resident. College students upset the balance of power across the state due to their high congregation in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Blacksburg and other areas. All these students should be forced to vote in their own district according to their driver's license." My neighbor and I were just talking about that very issue this morning. The students live here temporarily and do not pay taxes or suffer the consequences of their votes. They should vote in their home districts, not their school districts.

Henrico and Chesterfield are so intertwined, both with infrastructure and general Richmond suburban culture, so many people live in one county and work in the other, it really makes me scratch my head that these two counties are being split. I understand balancing districts, but I have far more in common here in Short Pump with folks from Midlo than people in the Northern Neck. I've never even been to the Northern Neck! I really feel like Henrico and Chesterfield being split like this dilutes the voices of everyone in the Richmond suburbs and gives us all less fair representation.

Louisa should be placed in a congressional district that unifies its community of interest. Louisa residents have strong ties to both Richmond and Charlottesville so, ideally, a district would be drawn that unites Central Virginia along the I-64 corridor, linking suburban Richmond and Charlottesville. Louisa has little in common with counties along the bay.

I find it very messed up that we go from Zion's Crossroads to Newport News. The neighborhood I am part of is now split between 2 different districts. Seems to me that our needs are not the same as the coastal areas. I like the idea of the mix between different areas of rural/suburban/urban, but they need to be geographic close. What we have here is a district that goes across a large part of the state where needs very greatly.

Dividing Blacksburg and Christiansburg from Roanoke breaks local interests into two districts. We live in Blacksburg and go to Roanoke frequently for events, shopping, car maintenance, etc. We do not go into the rural areas south and west of us for anything but a tourist type ride. I can think of nothing that ties these two more urban cities to the very rural areas. Your lines dilute the influence in Congress of our two burgeoning urban areas.

As a lifelong Hampton Roads native, spending 25 years in Virginia Beach before spending the past 17 in Norfolk, I am highly concerned with the proposed redistricting of CD02 and CD03. Virginia Beach and Norfolk share so many shared interests, from military bases to environmental concerns due to rising sealevel rise. These are just two of many concerns, but it is disheartening to see CD02 drawn almost as an afterthought. Please take a critical look at all factors to consider appropriate and fair representation. We deserve better.

Breaking up District 8 and particularly the Lorton portion of South Fairfax County into potentially three different delegate districts is very problematic and diminishes the continuity of the community which has only gained its prominence and voice over the last ten years.

The proposed map packs more African American votes into the 4th congressional district to the City of Richmond alredy deeply democratic. This is removing their influcence and silencing their voices. Western Henrico and Chesterfield are thriving and share economic, social, and cultural ties that should not be split. I live in the 7th District now and the map just removes my district.

As a military family we lives in Virginia Beach we consistently spend considerable time in Norfolk Va at either the Fleet Services location or Naval Station Norfolk. Active duty servicemen live and work in both communities, we deserve the same federal representation in order advocate for our interest. In addition, these communities share the same environmental concerns due to similarity in location and infer-structure. Changing this by redistricting makes no sense and would not be cost effective.

This map is grossly unfair and further leverages the progressive influence of Northern Virginia against the more conservative counties to the south which have little in common with NOVA. I moved south to avoid that insanity. Prince William has more in common with the northern portions of the 10th District and Spotsylvania, Orange, Madison and points south should be excluded from the 10th. It also makes little sense to separate the northern precincts of Spotsylvania from the rest of the county. We are governed and organize as a county, not as part of Fredericksburg City.

Please disregard my other comment. I had to make one edit, and I had to change the email address. It is disheartening that people who have been disenfranchised continue to be denied representation. Based on the maps, you are giving all the black people in Norfolk to Congressman Scott and setting Virginia Beach up to be represented by a Republican in the 3rd district. This is foul play.

It is disheartening that people who have been disenfranchised continue to be denied representation. Based on the maps, you are giving all the black people in Norfolk to Congressman Scott and setting Virginia Beach up to be represented by a Republican in the 3rd district. This is fowl play.

The Eastern Shore is more of a Community of Interest with the 5 counties on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay than they do with Virginia Beach or Norfolk. Virginia Beach and Norfolk are more of a Community of Interest than Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore.

The 7th District now disregards the long standing regional interests, relationships, and affiliations with communities to the east, south, and west of Stafford County. We are not "northern Virginia" and should not be defined as such because I95 runs through our county. The Quantico Marine Corps Base serves as a very real physical barrier that severely limits interests between Stafford and points north hence combining with Prince William will degrade community future interests.

There are two things that unite the current 2nd Congressional District, 1) a large military present stretching from Dam Neck in the south to Langley in the north (and additonally Wallops Island as a NASA facility on the Eastern Shore) and 2) water...a shoreline touching the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. These are the two factors that unit the district as a community. The new map ignores these important factors and communities of similar interests and appears to lump rural/ agricultual, suburban and resort interest in a disconnect and un-unified way.

Stafford has nothing in common with NVa except traffic We would be much better aligned with zone 10 than zone 7. The more recent residents moved here to get away from NVa. The rest of us have been here for a long time and are solidly rural in our sympathies.

To the VA Supreme Court - please use the originally agreed upon House Map “C1”. Otherwise recommend that the three Fairfax County precincts be removed from the 7th and replaced with the three northernmost precincts in Spotsylvania County (Riverbend, Elys Ford, and Wilderness School). Thank you for your consideration!

I feel many of the districts are divided to give female candidates more difficult areas.

Although the Special Masters' congressional plan as a whole complies with federal and state law, it divides a clear community of interest by splitting Albemarle County and Charlottesville City between the 5th and 10th Districts and diluting our community's voice in Congress. By any measure, Charlottesville and Albemarle are a community of interest that should be recognized and protected. We have common economic, cultural, and institutional ties, including the University of Virginia. Under the Special Masters' plan, faculty, staff, and students would be divided between the two districts, and even the physical campus of UVA would be split (Grounds and the Health System would be in the 5th, while the Research Park would be in the 10th). There are common media outlets like the Daily Progress, C-VILLE Weekly, and TV and radio stations that cover our community, and extensive transportation links between Albemarle and Charlottesville. On an even more local level, the plan severs the designated growth area of Crozet into two for no apparent reason. My neighbors across the street would literally be in a different congressional district from me under the proposed plan. Fortunately, there is a straightforward solution that can unify Charlottesville and Albemarle into a single congressional district without making major changes to the rest of the Special Masters’ Plan. First, I propose that the 10th District be extended southward to include Charlottesville and Albemarle County, with whom it shares closer ties than the 5th District. Notably, this would unify the U.S. 29 corridor between Charlottesville and Northern Virginia, which is the largest and most-used north-south route between Interstate 81 in the Shenandoah Valley and Interstate 95. In particular, a significant number of residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle travel at least periodically to Northern Virginia for work, to take advantage of cultural and other opportunities in the D.C. area, or to travel via Dulles International Airport. In contrast, Charlottesville and Albemarle have little economic or cultural connection with the rest of the 5th District, which is largely rural and agricultural. Second, to make up for the population loss to the 5th District caused by this change, Louisa County, Fluvanna County, Goochland County, and nine precincts in rural western Hanover County would be moved from the 1st District into the 5th District. These are all rural areas that have a good cultural and economic fit with the rest of the 5th District. Finally, to balance out the population, the portion of Spotsylvania County that is in the 10th District under the Special Masters’ Plan would be moved into the 1st District. For more details, please see the attached written comments.

Like many other people who have commented, I believe that Prince William and Loudoun counties have a lot more in common than the smaller/more rural counties you've paired them with. And citizens from those rural counties feel the exact same way clearly. Several of the citizen submissions sent in while this process was in the hands of the commission made it possible to take in all of Fairfax County and as much of the urban/suburban portions of Prince William and Loudoun Counties (Eastern Loudoun, Manassas, Woodbridge). The people that live here share the same larger interests concerning issues affecting the Northern Virginia region. Please do your best to keep the region together.

I agree with the other comments. At the minimum, the Mt Vernon/Mason Neck area should be assigned to one of the districts north of the Occoquan, that is, either Congressional District 11 or CD8. Population density is greater in Fairfax and Alexandria than Prince William. Furthermore, work/school patterns, shopping, etc. are largely determined by the two rivers (Potomac and Occoquan) -- with both being difficult to cross at peak travel times (or all the time if you're trying to get to Potomac Mills). South the river is effectively a different region, with different patterns of life, and different concerns than us in Mt Vernon. Of the two CDs, I'd prefer to be in CD11 -- we want competitive districts to obtain more optimal political outcomes. This also meets the 'natural boundary' requirement for redistricting. As the map is currently drawn, the only 'natural boundary' that's met is the Potomac.

Thank you for your commitment to making sensible decisions. With respect, I am disturbed by the proposed District 1. I live in Rep. Spanberger’s 7th in Eastern Goochland close to both 288, the Wiley Bridge and Parkway. Even though Goochland, Henrico and Chesterfield are on opposite sides of the James River, the north and south sides are one community. Though I live in Goochland, it is most convenient to shop, dine out, meet friends, belong to a gym, go to movies, see physicians, etc. in Chesterfield, Midlothian, Stony Point and Powhatan. I use Henrico water and I recreate in Western Goochland, Henrico and Midlothian. Goochland, Henrico and Chesterfield are inter-dependent, seamless. Along with our capital city, we are the heart of Central Virginia. Several decades ago, Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico leaders committed to collaborating on what was best the city and the largest surrounding suburban areas. Up until that time, the three were not collegial. There were jokes about needing a passport to cross the river. Such progress!! Now we are one large community without defined borders; our services, our recreation, our centers of worship, our shopping, dining and political interests are in alignment for the betterment of Central Virginia. Please do not send us backwards.

This is absurd. Louisa County needs to have its district lines left intact!

I have commented in earlier maps that Powhatan County is an exurb of Richmond, a member of the regional economic and transportation boards connecting the greater Richmond metro area. Just stand out on route 60 in Powhatan and witness the sea of Powhatan commuters travelling to and from Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Goochland and Hanover! Our economic and cultural ties are with the metro Richmond region. No offense to our western southside friends meant, but our identity lies eastward. Please address these concerns as we are a community of interest in the Richmond metro region.

Salem belongs in the 9th please

The new proposed map for congressional districts done by 1 Democrat master and 1 Republican does not show knowledge of communities affected or perhaps no regard for them. I hope the next map will better reflect knowledge of the communities which are profoundly affected by proposed changes. Loudoun County as a community of interest does not belong with a set of rural counties going south. People of Loudoun don't like it and the people of the southern rural counties do not like it either judging from the comments. Loudoun County from the county seat Leesburg to the Fairfax County boundary is very urban/suburban. Many residents work in Fairfax, Arlington and DC. Many residents formerly lived in Fairfax and Arlington Counties. Loudoun should be kept in a 10th district that looks much more like the existing 10th district. Yes, take Clarke and Frederick Counties out which they want and they have much in common with the Shenandoah Valley counties. Join Loudoun County with parts of western Fairfax County and if needed Prince William County to create the revised 10th district. These places are all part of the greater Washington area within Virginia. There is common employment. Please do not settle for an overly simple solution of just looking at any old adjacent county and putting them together. The congressional representative would either have to be schizophrenic to serve the new 10th district you propose or ignore representing about 1/2 of their constituents and their needs. You can do better.

I feel that the Mount Vernon community has been isolated from its natural area of interaction.

I appreciate that the special masters had a tough job, and they seem to have done it fairly and to the best of their abilities. But I believe it's illegal under Virginia law to draw a line right through the middle of a community, and that's just what this map does to the town where I'm living, Crozet. You're literally splitting neighbors on opposite sides of the same street into different districts! That doesn't preserve our community, and it doesn't give us any hope of having our interests fairly represented. Crozet (and Charlottesville) have more in common with northern VA than southern, and I really don't want another set of maps that will drown out our votes by tacking us on to more rural and less populous areas deep into the southern portion of the state.

The new map of U. S. Congressional district map moves a relatively small number of people, who live south of highway VA-235 and north of Fort Belvoir, from District 8 to District 7. These people are separated from their neighbors to the north who have, among other things, common school districts, airport flight paths, and interest in the protecting the history of the Mount Vernon area. A more natural southern boundary would be Ft. Belvoir rather then VA-235. In fact, I have the same objection to the State House of Delegates and Senate maps, which again use VA-235, rather then Ft. Belvoir, as their southern boundaries. So using all 3 maps completely separates these people from their neighbors and the nearest neghborhoods to the south, outside of Ft. Belvoir, are at least 1.5 miles away.

On page 14 of the special masters memo, they state "This left few options for the 2nd District" which implies that after prioritizing compact districts in the 3rd and 4th CDs, it appears that the special masters drew the 2nd CD with the scraps. And the community of interest most disparaged is our military and veteran population.populations that are essential to the socio-economic strength of Hampton Roads should not be split in the congressional districts.

Seems the 2nd got cheated. It only got the scraps of what wasn’t put into CDs 3 & 4. Military and veterans have huge populations in Hampton Roads, and they should not be split in the congressional districts. The bases work together and active duty service members live in both Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Why split them after all these years? Our military and veteran citizens deserve to have the same federal representation to advocate for their interests. The communities in Ocean View and bordering Norfolk NAS and Little Creek overlap with Virginia Beach as a community of interest. These residents have more in common with the Beach than the downtown and Ghent areas of the City. Furthermore, Isle of Wight & Suffolk share more with Portsmouth in the 3rd than they do with Virginia Beach. The way the map is drawn succeeds in decreasing the minority representation in VA-03. The parts of Norfolk that correspond as a community of interest should go back into VA-02 and Suffolk/Isle of Wight should be in the 3rd, as it would strengthen minority representation. It appears that Districts 2 and 3 and 4 were redrawn specifically so that a congressional rep would no longer live in their District. Smells bad.

I have lived in the 10th CD ever since I moved to Virginia in 1975. Aside for moving to the house next door, I have lived at the same address for all those years. The northern portion of Fairfax County has more in common with Loudoun County than Loudoun County has with the agricultural areas tin the middle of Virginia. Server farms, which are widespread in Loudoun, are not agricultural, rather, they are high tech, just as Fairfax County is. I would like to remain in the 10th CD.

The changes being made to Districts 2 and 3 appear intended to tip the toss up District 2 into the GOP column. You have moved areas with a higher percentage of Black voters, typically Democrats, from District 2 into District 3 which is already overwhelmingly Democratic. Hampton Roads as a whole is majority Democrat. Please have our 2 main Districts represent that. It's an honest representation of the area. Please provide each district the same percentage of Democrat and GOP voters as the overall percentage of Democrat and GOP in the clearly identifiable area. Hampton Roads is not an abstract idea. It is a singularly identified region in Federal, Regional and Commonwealth planning and commercial organizations.

The percent population deviations on the congressional districts, that are listed in the table below this map, are so narrow in range that it is clear evidence that communities of interest were not considered when the Special Masters drew the boundaries for the 1st and 7th congressional districts. The Special Masters report shows that the 7th district was considered last (see page 16) -- it would be impossible to account for central Virginia as a community of shared interests and then have all deviations within a range of less than 0.50%. The Special Masters started in the corners (NoVA, Hampton Roads, SW Virginia), worked inward, and then diluted minority votes by assigning northern Chesterfield and western Henrico counties to different congressional districts. It was inadvertent, but that's what happens when you start in the corners and work your way in, and when the percent deviation restriction is made artificially tight (less than 10% of the permissible range was used). Fix this map by now starting in the greater Richmond area and working outward and then downward through the state legislative maps. My testimony to the Virginia Supreme Court is attached.

As a resident of Old Trail, Crozet, I strongly disagree with the division of our town of Crozet into two districts. The redistricting Constitutional Amendment "demands that congressional and state legislative districts be contiguous and compact" and that "that districts preserve communities of interest". https://redistricting.lls.edu/state/virginia/?cycle=2020&level=Congress&startdate= The division of Crozet into two districts violates both of those provisions. Crozet tightly unified community with common economic, health, education and social interests. Further, artificially dividing our town will lead to voter confusion and less participation. All of Crozet is centered around Western Albemarle high school, the restaurants and businesses, the churches and athletic center, the parades and artisan and music festivals. Perhaps the clearest departure from the Constitutional guidelines is where the proposed 10th District juts into the 5th District just east of the intersection Routes 240 and 250 and continues that intrusion south of 250 to Route 64 as far as the intersection of 250 and 676 just beyond Ivy. There would appear to be no reason for the 10th District to extend south of Route 250.

Much of Chesterfield and Henrico comprise a shared community of interest economically, socially, culturally, and geographically. They should not be put in different Congressional districts.

Loudoun County has been the anchor of CD10 at least since I moved here in 1988. And a large portion of Prince William County (PWC) has also been part of it. The two counties have many issues in common given their growth patterns and proximity to D.C. The proposed map makes no sense given that Loudoun residents have nothing in common with the counties to the south. I and my family have ties to PWC, not to any of the counties you've added to CD10. And this is true of everyone I know. Loudouners don't commute to Charlottesville, they commute to Fairfax Co and to D.C. As do PWC residents. We need a map more similar to the current one in order for similar communities to share representation.

Every day Hanover County becomes more a suburb of Richmond. The Congressional Districts are supposed to represent communities of interest, but this map links Hanover with Westmoreland and other communities of the Chesapeake Bay Area with which Hanover shares little socially or economically. Being in the I-95 corridor Hanover’s existential threat is the D.C. to Richmond development pressure. We would be better served to be in a district with counties with similar concerns like Henrico and Caroline.

The three Fairfax County precincts should be removed from the 7th district and the northermost Spotsylvania county precincts should be added (Riverbend, Elys Ford, and Wilderness School).

you should not split the military and veteran populations in Hampton Roads. Our local bases ( NAS Norfolk, Oceana) work closely together and should be represented by the same Congressional reprersentative.

Are you serious? Splitting Crozet in half is only going to compound several problems that are springing up as a result of massive development in this part of the county. It reflects a map drawn by people who have no recollection of what is going on here.

I believe it makes more sense to put Prince William and Loudoun counties together in a single district rather than cobbling together Prince William, Stafford, City of Fredericksburg, and parts of Spotsylvania and Fairfax Counties into the proposed 7th. The other option would be splitting Prince William County between East and West with East reverting to the 1st District where it was until 2010 and West joining with Loudoun and other areas. Prince William County is one of the few counties where splitting it in two would make sense as the eastern and western portions of the county have distinct characters with little in common.

The border that separate Stafford from Prince William is pretty much Marine Corps Base Quantico. Stafford Co. shares more border real estate and like interest with our sister counties to the East, West, and South. This is all political BS from the power hungry politicians that could give a crap less about the people of Stafford Co. Did anybody as the residents of Stafford County what we wanted? You people need to go about your business and leave Stafford County alone. We don't want or need any "Wokeness" here.

I live in Western Henrico Coumty and am dismayed that the new proposed Congressional map separates us from Chesterfield Country. We share the same socioeconomic values with Chesterfield and it makes no sense to split us up. When I moved here in 2008 I was curious why all my new doctors had offices in Midlothian. Once I traveled there it became clear, to even a new resident, that the similaries beween our areas was obvious. We have benefitted from the same growth and progress over the years and I do not want that to change. I am asking you to please keep the District 7 area the same, acknowledging that some minor changes may be required because of the shifting population in a few areas. We have nothing in common with the Hampton Roads area and I fear our real estate values, roads, eduction, etc. will suffer if these changes are made. Thank you for your consideration of my POV.

Relevant to the boundaries between Districts 8&7, I do not support any proposals which splits the Mount Vernon HS Pyramid or the Mount Vernon Supervisor's District in half. Splitting out part of the Mount Vernon community from District 8 to be put into District 7 makes absolutely no sense - especially with regards to communities of interest. This area is completely connected to the District 8 businesses, schools and community and has no connections to Prince William County and the communities of Manassas, Fredericksburg, Stafford, Gainesville, etc. Please hear the pleas to reconsider these proposed boundaries.

The suburbs of Richmond - Chesterfield and Henrico share common interests economically, socially, and culturally and these areas should not be split into different districts. For example, the greater Richmond area is served by bus transportation by the GRTC (Greater Richmond Transit Company) and now this area served by public transit falls into 3 congressional districts. Please keep these communities of interest together to maintain our areas voice cohesively through our elected officials.

North Stafford has been lumped in with PWC for the purposes of representation in the House of Delegates since the last redistricting. Our interests have been swamped by the progressive majority in PWC. This map is a blatant attempt to dilute the classical liberal majority in Stafford by combining it with the progressive majority in PWC and points north.

Splitting Crozet is not wise. Having more than one representative will create a disorganized leadership and create decision making difficulties in this time of economic and physical growth for Crozet. Please keep Crozet as a unified entity for representation. This map creates so many problems. If you can't keep Albemarle as one district - at least don't divide a town in the midst of growth decisions and planning. This is clear gerrymandering.

The ocean view and waterfront parts of Norfolk and Virginia Beach specifically should be together in federal representation due to their shared environmental concerns. Reports by leading environmental scientists that the sea level could rise by several feet along our shores by the end of the century should be raising serious alarm. Beyond the human cost of that disastrous possibility, the economic and infrastructural damage such a change could inflict on these communities is unthinkable

This map looks like it was made strictly based on getting the adjusted populations to be close and did not consider the interest of the voters in Henrico county.

Disagree with splitting parts of Mount Vernon off from its near neighborhood community north of the Occoquan river. Does that make any sense...not in my view? Do what's right please. Thanks

I disagree with the proposed redistricting. To make the 7th district more competitive, remove the three Fairfax County precincts and replace them with the three northernmost precincts in Spotsylvania County (Riverbend, Elys Ford, and Wilderness School). Or, simply use the originally agreed upon House Map C1. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Tim

We have very little in common with the eastern shore of the state. Central Virginia is our community and it would make sense to have a compact Central VA district (that includes everyone between Richmond and Charlottesville).

Bedford should not be grouped with SW VA - it's much more culturally/geographically aligned with VA-5.

I strongly oppose the proposed redistricting of the small subset of the Mount Vernon community as it splits our community in two and disregards the affected neighborhoods inherent interests in our local community. We live on the original Mount Vernon farm, our children go to the Mount Vernon pyramid schools and we support Mount Vernon area businesses. This proposed change makes no sense and must be remedied by redrawing the lines to ensure that district 8 includes the entirety of the Mount Vernon community.

District 8 should include all of historic mount vernon

I moved to Mount Vernon because I thought the George Washington House would always be a part of the community. Since we live only one mile from the George Washington House, I sincerely hope it remains part of our district instead of Woodbridge.

District 8 should include all of the Mount Vernon community. Cutting out our neighbors like this doesn't make sense. Also, the “Special Masters” are not familiar with our community and appear to have ignored longstanding and recognized communities here in the oldest parts of Fairfax County. The current recommendations will have a substantial negative impact on our community for the next 10 years, by separating key areas from Mount Vernon District cores in Mount Vernon and in Lorton.

I recently became a VA state resident. I would like republican representation to stay in District 7. Gerrymandering is a corrupt practice that destabilizes society and is not good for any party. We need balance in our lives. Give me representation.

The most logical district for my area would include the following: Goochland Co. East of Rt 522, Western Henrico Co., S.W. Hanover Co., Eastern Powhatan Co. and Northern Chesterfield Co. There's nothing obscure about this: the residents in these areas have common interests and outlooks; Rep Spanberger works very well for us in this regard and absolutely takes the interests of our more rural neighbors very seriously. This map as drawn is clearly a Republican power grab, meant to dilute out women voters and voters of color.

This new distracting scenario is unacceptable as currently presented. It's important to understand that separating Henrico this way does not recognize the shared interests of the affected communities. Community, social, and businesses will be adversely affected as legislation would stand to be come incongruous to those common interests.

I recommend that the three Fairfax County precincts be removed from the 7th and replaced with the three northernmost precincts in Spotsylvania County (Riverbend, Elys Ford, and Wilderness School). My other recommended change would be to encourage the Supreme Court to simply use the originally agreed upon House Map “C1”.

Louisa and Fluvanna Counties have little in common with the eastern part of the state, which forms most of this district. It is disheartening to see this plan divest all three incumbent women from their current districts, particularly as all the men's districts have been preserved for them.

While my family and I have just moved to the area, we have been struck by the sense of Mount Vernon as a community. Our mailing address may say Alexandria, but we tell everyone we live in Mount Vernon. We're one street off of this proposed change so "technically" not impacted, but our children play on the same teams as kids from the area proposed to be moved to #7, go to school with them and we have friends in that area. Perhaps consider moving the proposed boundary to the border of Fort Belvoir, or even just past it, which is a far more logical division than straight through an established community.

The new 7th District does not reflect the community interests of Prince William County as drawn. It is an improvement to have a district that is more contiguous, but I believe that it would be politically more fair if the Fairfax precincts were replaced by the three northern precincts of Spotsylvania County instead - Riverbend, Elys Ford, and Wilderness School. This would better balance the party registrations of the new 7th and give Republicans a fighting chance. In terms of commonality, the fast-growing areas of northern Spotsylvania are closer in common interest to Prince William County than they are to Fairfax anyway. Please consider this alteration as a more equitable way to draw this district..

Henrico should not be separated from Greater Richmond due to community interest

I disagree with the new maps as drawn because they split up the Richmond suburbs of Chesterfield and Henrico into different districts. This is an odd divide because Chesterfield and Henrico share economic, social and cultural ties and many Henrico and Chesterfield residents cross between the counties regularly for work, shopping and leisure activities.

While I understand that there is greater population density in Northern Virginia, representation is not only based on the number of people. We must consider demographic, geopolitical and socioeconomic factors as well. By removing the 7th district instead of redrawing it, you are removing representation from moderates, those who are more liberal, brown communities (Asian Americans), and different political interests of Western Henrico by putting them into a district that is strongly Republican instead of even competitive. You are also placing suburban Richmond into areas that are not communities of interest in terms of ideology, economics, and needs from their representative. The same could be said of the "old" 7th district as well since there was so much rural land mass and those residents didn't identify with suburbanites in Henrico and Chesterfield. Henrico should not be included in a massive district that spans all the way to the Northern Neck, nor should it be in a voting block dominated by some of the most conservative residents and political leaders in the state (don't put us in the 5th either). Central Virginia needs more diverse representation, not less. And, it appears that representation by women is not of interest at all since their districts have been removed or threatened. Perhaps there should be four appointed map drawers, two of which are women and at least one of whom is a person of color. This map effectively says that those people who elected Spanberger do not matter and should have no voice by placing them in districts so heavily Republican. It also says that Spanberger doesn't matter when she's been a dynamic leader in the House. She matters. Women matter. I matter. Brown people matter. Go back to the drawing board, please, and create a moderate, competitive district for central Virginia.

Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Senate District #34 and putting it in Senate District #33 with Woodbridge and Manassas violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #34, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #34 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Delegate District #16 and putting it in Delegate District #19 with Lorton, Gunston, and Woodbridge violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #16, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #16 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Congressional District #8 and putting it in Congressional District #7 with Prince William and Stafford Counties violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #8, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #8 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor.

I disagree with Suffolk City lumped into the 2nd district with the upper counties along the coast. The city has much more in common with Norfolk/Portsmouth with its many military residents. Additionally our interest are closer to those of Norfolk and Portsmouth. We are not contiguous on land due to the Great Dismal Swamp separating the city from its next neighbor.

I currently live in the 7th Congressional District, and the new redistricting obliterates this district. Our current district is a diverse mix -- a true sense of Virginia from rural to suburban. It seems like the new district map is intent on lumping all of suburban Richmond with urban Richmond, which is not representative of all of Virginia.

While I do appreciate the more compact nature of these districts compared to our current CDs, especially CD5, and that the resultant districts to not seem overly biased, choosing to divide Albemarle/Charlottesville will continue to create confusion among voters and poor representation of our community. Just as I'm currently trapped in a gerrymandered 59th HOD district, with neighbors a mile away in different districts, I will now be a mile away from the CD border. I disagree with the (very few) commenters saying that southern Albemarle has more in common with southern Virginia than the north central area or east central areas. I have lived in south western Albemarle for all but my four years in Richmond at college and am a ninth generation Albemarle County resident - I, and many of my neighbors, have much more in common to the north and east of Virginia than to the south. Albemarle should be kept intact and included in District 10 to the north or possibly added to District 1, which would also be a fairer treatment of Representative Spanberger, giving her a fighting chance in a purple district. At a minimum, community borders such as Crozet/White Hall should be respected and divisions should be made at areas with less dense populations.

District 8 should include all of the Mount Vernon community. Cutting out our neighbors like this makes no sense.

The Powhite Parkway, Huguenot Bridge, and Rt 288, particularly between US 360 and Broad, recognizes how Chesterfield County is connected to the Richmond metro area. The "River City" Complex in Chesterfield County and its huge planned addition considers this population, not those near the North Carolina border. Please reconsider.

Loudoun should not be in a district that stretches all the way to Charlottesville. I realize the former 5th district used to be a catastrophe as it stretched from the North Carolina to Loudoun Border, and I think this time around we should avoid more districts like that.

Connecting Eastern Shore & Southampton County is not a community of interest.

Appreciate the hard work, but I'm finding it hard to see how it makes sense to have a district that stretches from Fluvanna to the Chesapeake bay. By doing this, you are shoring up Congressman Wittman while you couldn't have just slightly altered Abigail Spanberger's district and made everyone happy.

Moving the suburbs around Richmond into 2/3 different districts does not make sense. The western suburbs should be in a voting block since we share so many common interests. There is no reason we should be voting with the more rural counties to the west as we do not share common interests like transportation.

Looks like Republican gerrymandering.

C'mon, please give us a break in the Charlottesville and nearby Albermarle County area and for once let us elect a US Representative that truly represents our interests. We are so diluted that we have had no influence on the outcomes of Congressional elections, but by including so much of rural downstate VA in your proposed 5th District, it would appear that once again you would deprive us of our voices.

I agree with many who offer objections to the drawing of the second district. The proposed 2nd is the only district that does a wrap around. This is not necessary and it separates communities of interest, especially military and veteran citizens. Currently the 2nd district comprises the largest veteran and active military population in the US, which is well served by a competitive district that has an interest in representing the Military and Veteran constituencies. Further by the proposed boundries would make the 2nd & 3rd districts much less competetive, carving out an even more "safe" Democratic district in the 3rd and switching the 2nd to from a competitive district to a "safe' Republican district. Redrawing districts 2, 3 and 4 would make all districts compact and can keep all communities of interest better represented and prevent "safe Districts for either party.

Salem belongs in the 9th district

Splitting out part of the Mount Vernon community from District 8 to be put into District 7 makes no sense. This area is intrinsically connected to the District 8 businesses, schools, and community and has no connections to Prince William County and the communities of Manassas, Fredericksburg, Stafford, Gainesville, etc. Please reconsider these proposed boundaries.

I believe the proposed political boundaries should generally follow the boundaries established for like neighborhoods. In this case, within Fairfax County, the Planning Districts established in the county are recognized boundaries representing similar, adjacent neighbors with associated issues. The demarcation of the Planning Districts can be found at: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/comprehensive-plan/planning-districts Dogue Creek should be the boundary for this part of the Southeast Alexandria area of Fairfax County. And it separates Fort Belvoir from the nearby residential community. The Rose Hill and Mt Vernon Planning Districts should be combined since they have joint interests in this area of the county.

In light of potholes, crowded housing, excessive litter, small businesses going under AND abandoned industrial sites such as the tobacco plant in Richmond which are ripe for drug use, THIS is what the Supreme Court of Virginia decides to focus on. Oh, this and melting down old statues for no apparent reason other than appeasing mob violence. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Senate District #34 and putting it in Senate District #33 with Woodbridge and Manassas violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #34, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #34 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Delegate District #16 and putting it in Delegate District #19 with Lorton, Gunston, and Woodbridge violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #16, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #16 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Congressional District #8 and putting it in Congressional District #7 with Prince William and Stafford Counties violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #8, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #8 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor.

I live three blocks away from the West Gate of Mount Vernon Estate. We, and our neighbors to the north of the Estate, are a community. Our children play on the same athletic teams, they go to the same public schools and attend the same churches. We all work together to improve our community and we share many concerns. We are concerned about the development, traffic and safety issues regarding the George Washington Parkway and Richmond Highway. The noise generated from National Airport has been on our radar for many years. We need local representatives who have knowledge of these issues and can address them accordingly. I very rarely visit Fredericksburg or Manassas but regularly take the Parkway north to dine, shop or visit neighbors. Please keep Westgate Precinct #613 in Congressional District 8.

Not a fan

This makes absolutely no sense and should be revisited.

Please do not split Albemarle County / Charlottesville.

Henrico and Chesterfield are one community. Their ecomonies and cultures are linked and they are part of the same greater metropolitan area. To divide them into separate districts is a failure to meet the criteria of preserving communities of interest, and dilutes their vote.

It does not make any sense to divide counties, much less cities, into different districts. As so many have said, communities have much more in common and should remain together. Splitting us causes far more problems than it solves. More than anything else, I would love to know my vote counts and that my representative truly wants to represent my community- we all deserve that. Please keep counties/cities together in a district that will represent us vs diluting our votes, as we have now and what this plan continues to propose.

This map literally divides the White Hall Magisterial District in two, with half in the 5th, and half in the 10th. Talk about dividing a community. This area works together for County Commissioners and Schools. To divide it this way is an offensive attempt to dilute the votes of the hard working people in Western Albemarle.

Like the majority of comments here i agree that splitting Albemarle county into two districts is insane. better than previous 5th district which included Charlottesville in a huge district stretching from the north carolina border into the fringes of northern virginia. this map now splits charlottesville city and some close in suburbs into two different districts. not much will change in terms of never having the interests of the greater charlottesville area really represented by a congresssman. Instead the city and its suburbs and the county of albemarle will have their votes diluted into two different congressional districts. Also, i live in Pantops approximately 1 mile from the city of charlottesville border and definitely do not want my precinct separated away from Charlottesville as another comment has requested

Why do we have to have eyes in the back of our heads so we don't miss the sneaking stuff going on in our government. Trying to sway the votes to one party to benefit the wealthy is insane! Wealthy, don't you know its us, the people, that make your business thrive. Every vote should count so stop drawing crocked lines to make the votes go in favor of candidates that DONT have our best interest at heart. DO NOT PASS this BIAS redistricting!

Salem NEEDS to stay in the 9th, WE ARE NOT ROANOKE CITY we are and INDEPENDENT CITY.

This district is being designed as a new incumbent protection district, very similar to the way district 3 is set up to habitually elect the same incumbent. Why is Chesterfield always being split up? It appears the residents of Chesterfield are continuously cracked and ciphered to dilute their voter strength and to help improve the strength of democrat voters, at the expense of independents and republicans. Please consider moving all of Chesterfield to the 4th Congressional district. That should give the current incumbent an actual run for his money.

This is something I have noticed over the years. This district is never changed. It is always the same. Why is it that the people that live in this geographic area get a special privilege to always have the same district set up? It appears to be incumbent protection and it is plainly corrupt. Representative Bobby Scott must be very influential to be able to pull off this trick decade after decade.

This map is unkind to my Roanoke County neighbors. Why split that county? Why split the city from its surrounding county? Neither appears to be necessary.

If the special masters were truly "nesting" districts, as claimed in their memo, Virginia Senate districts 12 and 16 would be included together as a community of interest in the same Congressional district, along with as much of Senate district 10 as could be included in same Congressional district. With regard to Central Virginia, the special masters clearly did not "nest" the state districts within the Congressional districts. Instead, they departed from the state districts and divided the western Richmond suburbs and exurbs among 3 different Congressional districts, thereby diluting the voice of the Richmond suburbs in Congress.

I’m very disappointed that my home on Mason Neck will now be redistricted into Spotsylvania county and PW county. This does not reflect our geographic connection to Fairfax county as is divided by the Occoquan River.

We belong to Fairfax County in Mason Neck. Do not send us out of our current districts.

The proposed Congressional redistricting in the metropolitan Richmond area is deeply concerning to me. First, it doesn’t take into account how closely Richmond and the surrounding counties of Chesterfield and Henrico interact on a daily basis commercially, career-wise, and socially with friends and family. We have common interests, economic ties, shared services, and common needs (I.e. transportation, infrastructure). Northern Chesterfield may appear cut off from Henrico and Richmond by the James River, but this is the 21st century and our communities are joined by a number of bridges and are accessible. By separating the Northern and Western suburbs of Chesterfield from the rest of Central Virginia and adding them to the more rural 5th District, a district they have little in common with, this proposed change will serve to mute the voices of those communities as they seek representation. My second concern is how the proposed redistricting will likely affect districts held by Virginia’s three Democratic Congresswomen. The optics suggest that these Congresswomen have been singled out in a way that their male counterparts have not, with two of them seeing extreme changes to their districts, specifically Abigail Spanberger. Abigail Spanberger, my current representative, is a highly effective public servant who strives to work on a bipartisan basis, who has unique work experiences (CIA), who conducts intelligent town hall meetings, and against whom the opposition has been running ads during an off election year. The fact that her existing district would be completely changed and that she would have to establish a totally new base of support looks a little suspicious. It can make a person wonder “ why? who? and did they think no one would notice?” It just doesn’t seem like it would pass the smell test. If there is a really good, nonpartisan explanation for why this was done and why Spanberger, I would like to see it.

I am opposed to dividing our historic Mount Vernon district into two separate districts. Our community needs strong, unified voices to advocate for the unique challenges of the Mount Vernon This redistricting will weaken those voices tremendously. Our schools will be adversely affected, the Route 1 corridor and development will also be affected. Keep Mount Vernon as one district

The sections of the Mount Vernon neighborhoods that have been stripped from District 8 need to be reinstated. We live on the property that was once George Washington's farms - all of the Mount Vernon neighborhoods are one community with shared needs and outlooks. We share a high school, a middle school, youth sports leagues, shopping centers etc. To separate the Southern sections of the "Five Farms" from the rest will divide our community's representation in public office. We are one community and should be represented by the same elected official, whether North or South of George Washington's estate.

Please move the eastern border of 5th district from River Rd to the east end of Graves Rd so we can have a congressman who represents us. Richmond has nothing in common with South Chesterfield.

These proposed maps for the Metro Richmond minimizes minority voices and their vote. There is a better way to make this work. Go back and do it again.

This is not great. My family has more in common with Henrico and the suburbs of Richmond than the western reaches of the Commonwealth. A Representative legislating on my family's behalf would somehow have to reconcile the needs of more suburban residents located near Richmond with those of Evington or Pamplin. That seems unfair to residents from both areas. In addition, these Richmond suburbs would be divided between three separate districts which would remove their voting power and voice despite our collective interests and circumstances.

This is a really odd way to split Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Portsmouth fit well together. Why carve so much out of VA-02 just to end up extend the district much further west than it belongs?

This area has very little in common with Prince William/Stafford/Fredericksburg. If Fairfax has to be carved up, keep this piece in VA-11 and move some of the areas near Dulles into VA-10. Then move Spotsylvania into Va-9 to make up the difference.

New VA-2 stretches way too far inland. This is a coastal district which is a very poor much for anything west of Suffolk. This area fits better in VA-04. VA-02 should hug the coastline, picking up part of Newport News or Hampton which is more similar to Norfolk/Chesapeake area.\

I object to placing the Historic Mt.Vernon Community in Manassas/Fredericksburg districts

The communities of Masons Neck up to Mount Vernon should remain in District 8. They have a common history for 200+ years with the growth along the Potomac northward to Alexandria. The resident’s concerns and welfare are strongly dependent on Fairfax County. In contrast, our communities do not have that level of similar natural cohesion with communities south of the Occoquan River.

Keep FAR LEFT Socialist London County Out of District 10!!!

Charlottesville and Albemarle County should be in the first District. Culturally, speaking, Charlottesville has much, much more in common with Richmond than it does with Lynchburg. Both Charlottesville and Richmond, which the First District touches, are interested in moving past the Confederacy; Lynchburg is not. By keeping Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the Fifth District, you are effectively disenfranchising a substantial majority of voters there from their Congressional race. Most people in Charlottesville will never align with far-right candidates like Bob Good and Tom Garrett.

Adding my voice to those in northern Chesterfield County who feel completely dismayed by the proposed Congressional map. As part of the metro-Richmond region, our lives and interests align most closely with our neighbors just north of the river. Without a map that reflects this, adequate representation will be near impossible.

We live in the Westgate community which is historically part of the Mount Vernon area. I am writing to object to the proposal to place us in a new Congressional District that would be centered on Fredericksburg and Manassas. The issues that affect the quality of life in our community are much different than the challenges people face in Manassas; let alone Fredericksburg which is a full 40 miles away down the I-95 corridor. The proposed redistricting line literally splits our community off from Mount Vernon High School and Walt Whitman Middle School where we send our children to school and would severely dilute our opportunity to be fairly represented on a variety of local issues including air pollution, noise pollution, and development along the Route 1 corridor and in adjacent areas near our home. The interests of our community would be much more fairly represented by including our community in the 8th Congressional District where we share mutual interests and a long history with our neighbors. I hope you will take my comments into consideration before you make any final decision on the Congressional redistricting proposal.

We live in the Westgate area of Mount Vernon and strongly object to being removed from the rest of our Mount Vernon Community in the 8th Congressional District and tacked on to the 7th District. Our interests are better served by representatives that live and work in in the same community as we do. Splitting us off from District 8 and the rest of the Mount Vernon Community ignores our long-standing community of interest and relationship with District 8. This proposal would separate us from our Mount Vernon Community of Interest where we live together, work together, go to school together and conduct business with. We have shared interests in public transportation, GW Parkway issues, northern Route 1 corridor development, infrastructure and other community interests. This proposal moves us to a District where we share none of those common interests and violates your own guiding principles. It appears that the Special Masters may have been too focused on the math as a priority rather than keeping communities together. Do not sacrifice our Community in order to make your numbers work…

I am disappointed that our sister city of Norfolk is being cut off from Virginia Beach in this redistricting. We are both heavily Navy towns and our interests tie together for military and environmental issues. Many people live in Norfolk & work in Virginia Beach and vice versa. We therefore have like interests and like needs and representation.

Mason Neck, Lorton, and Mount Vernon should all remain in District 8. The Mason Neck and Mount Vernon area are tightly knit historic key communities that greatly support the 8th district. I lived for years in Alexandria Va and feel Alexandria, down the the GW parkway by Mount Vernon to Mason Neck are all an extension of the communities. Rich presidential history ties them together and while redistricting can be a good idea, it is preposterous to think removing Key, historical areas (Mount Vernon, Lorton, and Mason Neck) - all in Fairfax county - from district 8 and moving them to another, unconnected district, in another county is a good idea. It is necessary to have another look at these proposed changes and right this unacceptable wrong. The Mount Vernon Communities voices matter and should be mentioned and recognized.

The residents of Lorton, VA, live in Fairfax County. They have consistently voted in Fairfax County, and their tax dollars, interests, and votes should remain in the county and community where they live. Disconnecting Lorton from the rest of Fairfax County and the Mount Vernon area is wrong! Please correct this!

Our Westgate/Mount Vernon Square neighborhood is part of Mount Vernon and Alexandria and should not be split and added to a district that includes Manassas and Fredericksburg. This seems to be politically driven to dilute a district that may swing more towards Democrats.

From: Thomas E. (Ted) Thompson and Lynn C. Thompson: 9334 Brambly Lane, Alexandria, 22309 To: Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court and Member Justices We offer the following comments on the redistricting maps presented for consideration by the Special Masters. Our comments in general apply to each of the maps impacting Postal Code 22309 1. While the Special Masters' memo specifically references the communities of Springfield and Franconia which are rather sprawling large communities, there is absolutely NO mention or recognition of the existence of the compact and closely knit Mount Vernon Community anywhere. The Special Masters completely ignore our areas as long-standing “communities of interest” sharing print media, public transport infrastructure, and institutions such as schools and churches and, I as an apparent result, are proposing to shift voters by: o Shifting those voters Living along Mount Vernon Memorial Highway into a new Congressional District centered on Fredericksburg and Manassas instead of the existing 8th Congressional District and the rest of Mt. Vernon; and o Shifting those voters living in Mason Neck or East of I-95 into a Virginia Senate District with people in Lake Ridge, Woodbridge, and Crosspointe, instead of with everyone else who lives in 22303, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309, and 22315. 2. They have also redrawn a renumbered 16th House of Delegates District (formerly 44th) into Wilton Woods and Burgundy Farm instead of including the Mount Vernon Estate and the neighborhoods along Mount Vernon Highway 3. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Senate District #34 and putting it in Senate District #33 with Woodbridge and Manassas violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #34, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #34 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. 4. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Delegate District #16 and putting it in Delegate District #19 with Lorton, Gunston, and Woodbridge violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #16, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #16 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. 5. Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Congressional District #8 and putting it in Congressional District #7 with Prince William and Stafford Counties violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #8, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #8 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor. 6. The proposed redistricting for our Congressional, Virginia Senate and Delegate Districts has unreasonably removed the Mount Vernon Estate and surrounding neighbors from the Mount Vernon District and requires that we be combined with Prince William and Stafford Counties and the towns of Woodbridge, Manassas, Lorton and Gunston. By not recognizing the Mount Vernon neighborhood we are unreasonably and split. 7. While Lynn and I recognize the necessity of redrawing the various districts to rid Virginia of Gerrymandering, these maps totally remove us from the Mt Vernon neighborhood area splitting and are unfair and uncalled for by the guidelines. 8. As a result, we are split from our contiguous community. The redistricting does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest. 9. We support the comments made by Mr. Thomas Russel and our District Supervisor Mr. Dan Stork.

Typical politics. Democrats lost the last election, now turn to two special Masters to concoct Democratic favored district to protect two or three of their incumbents. SAD state of Virginia. Should be stopped. The bipartisan commission failed because Democrats in the state wanted it do.

Why is Lorton (specifically Mason Neck) being disconnected from the rest of Fairfax County and the Mount Vernon area? Placing this portion of Fairfax County in District 7 is a disservice.

Please keep Lorton connected to the rest of Mount Vernon and or Fairfax County.

The Richmond area and surrounding suburbs are, indeed a “community of interest.” We go to the same schools, our children play in the same soccer leagues together, we worship in the same churches. We shop in the same malls and eat in the same restaurants. We visit the same doctor’s offices and our high school football teams play against one another. These new Congressional Districts make no sense. Indeed, this map reduces competitiveness and dilutes the Richmond suburban vote. These concerns were voiced when the Bipartisan Redistricting Commission held public testimony, but it seems our concerns were not taken into consideration. For example: In District 5, you place half of Chesterfield and Powhatan Counties, both of which are part of suburban Richmond, with Southside counties AND counties to the west, like Albemarle and Nelson. In District 4, the rest of Chesterfield County is placed with most of Henrico County, as well as with downtown Richmond and a number of counties in Southside Virginia, stretching all the way to North Carolina. I don’t understand the logic in splitting up both Henrico and Chesterfield Counties. Additionally, the needs of a densely populated urban center such as Richmond cannot be remotely similar to these rural Southside communities which house a number of the state’s prisons and a nuclear power plant. Also of note, this new District is heavily African-American. By packing the District in this way, you are essentially limiting the voice of these voters. Finally, a resident of Goochland County, I will now be included in the new District 1. While I am happy to see that my neighbors in Western Henrico are included in this District, I am, again, disheartened to see that Chesterfield is no longer a part of this District, despite its close proximity to our county and our close economic and communal ties. Again, as suburbs of the City of Richmond, we share in community activities, family gatherings, and school and religious events. This new District stretches all the way to the Hampton Roads area. The needs of Central and Eastern Virginia are so different; surely the small college town of Williamsburg (a town I cherish as a William and Mary graduate) knows nothing of the Broadband challenges my rural neighbors face or the suburban sprawl battles in the Short Pump area or traffic and construction issues on I-64 or Route 288. In Mathews and Poquoson, I expect they are more concerned with their waterways and issues around the Naval Shipyard or the Chesapeake Bay, issues which do NOT impact the day-to-day lives of my Richmond-area neighbors or me. I can appreciate that this task has been difficult and that no solution will be entirely appealing to everyone. However, as an active participant in the political system, I fear that this map ensures that my will is not valued by the Commonwealth or its leadership and that by dividing the counties of Central Virginia into these Districts you are, in effect, diluting our votes and ensuring that our voices will not be heard. We deserve to have fair representation in our Government and I respectfully request that you go back to the drawing table and consider the needs of the Richmond-area counties.

The current 7th district is being obliterated and split in a way that dilutes the voice of the Richmond suburbs. The West End of Henrico and Midlothian have far more in common than we do with the many rural areas we are being separately grouped with under this new map. This is one of the largest and most populated suburban areas in Virginia and it makes no sense to split the region so dramatically. There has been a significant shift in the politics of this region in the 18 years I have lived here and it has been refreshing to see the increase in diversity of opinion. This map seems bent on muting that progress.

Why would you put rural counties with more urban counties? What does Loudon have in common with Culpeper, Madison? Its like as usual we are being lumped in. I can't even watch the news out here about where I live. I have to listen to whats going on in DC, Maryland and such. We should be our own district, rural should stay with rural.

Mason Neck should not be removed from the Mount Vernon district.

These maps are completely unacceptable. The counties included in the proposed 1st District are not linked as communities of interest. The Richmond suburbs would be separated into 3 districts, which would remove their voting power and voice. Chesterfield and Henrico share economic, social, and cultural ties and must not be split. Additionally, Henrico County and Chesterfield County are linked by infrastructure boundaries. Furthermore, the fact that these maps target the elimination all of the female incumbent Congressional representatives is completely unacceptable. Add in the obvious packing of black voters into the 4th district, centered in Richmond, and the map loses all credibility and smacks of racism. Start over and come up with districts that actually reflect the voices of Virginia voters and shared communities of interest.

Although I recognize the various constraints that the Special Masters were under in the creation of these maps, I am deeply dismayed that the Richmond Region was not maintained as a community of interest. As someone who grew up in Henrico, spent my young adulthood as a property owner and resident in the City, and is now raising my family in Chesterfield, the maps, particularly the Congressional map, show a striking lack of understanding of how people in the Richmond suburbs move fluidly in and around the City when we live, work, and play. The residents of the close-in suburbs of Chesterfield and Henrico Counties are inextricably linked in our social, cultural, and economic interests. I and many, many others travel back and forth between Henrico and Chesterfield daily for professional and recreational reasons, and orient towards the City in our needs and interests, not away from it. The Congressional map as it is drawn now splits the Richmond Region in three, and two parts of the three will be represented by elected officials whose primary constituencies and areas of interest, both currently and historically, will not be in the Richmond Region, they will orient away from the needs of the residents in and around our capital city. I request that the Special Masters revisit the maps to find a way to unify the Richmond Region as a community of interest.

I agree that cutting Blacksburg and Radford away from Roanoke lumps it in w/rural interests, invalidating urban concerns. I applaud the effort to eliminate narrow segments but feel this could well cancel Centrist and Liberal voices.

Gutting the current CD 7th and merging us with Republican rural areas is muting our voices. Western Henrico and Chesterfield are tied by roads and economically. I go to southside for many things. Now Western Henrico won't be competitve anymore- lack of competitiveness and diluting the suburban Richmond voices is NOT competitive. We've spent many years canvassing and building community and this will tear it apart.

While I'm appreciative of the efforts overall on this map, the splitting of the Richmond area into 3 Congressional Districts seems wildly unjust. Diluting North Chesterfield and Western Henrico by lumping them in with rural Districts means our voices won't be represented. Under these maps, the short distance it takes me on a daily basis to drop my daughter off at her Dad's house would have us cross through 3 different Congressional Districts.

I agree with many who offer objections to the drawing of the second district. The proposed 2nd is the only district that does a wrap around. This is not necessary. And it separates communities of interest, especially military and veteran citizens. Redrawing districts 2, 3 and 4 would make all districts compact and can keep all communities of interest better represented.

For many years residents of the City of Richmond and the surrounding counties - Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover - have worked diligently to cooperate and act as a metropolitan area. This enables us to deal with environmental issues (such as cleaning up the James River), working together to provide an outstanding regional Governor's School (Maggie Walker), and cooperating to attract many new businesses to the metropolitan area. The proposed 4th Congressional District goes in the opposite direction by splitting Henrico and Chesterfield and removing Hanover from our region. The southern counties in this proposed map are much more closely aligned with Southside Virginia and will be better served by a Congressperson located there. Thank you. I am submitting my comments as an individual and not in my volunteer capacity as Treasurer of One Virginia 2021 Foundation.

This is the problem when the Special Masters are not citizens of Virginia. They have no idea of the historic nature of communities or consider at all of the historic nature of Mount Vernon itself. This is offensive. I have no problem with fair representation but dividing a community in half that has the worked together for this long is asinine. Does Virginia really need a court appointed outside group to determine our fate?

I live in Albemarle and my children live in the city. This court is taking my children from me and Im not having it.

I think we should have a district for just I-95, from nova to emporia. God bless.

Salem needs to stay in the 9th ! We are not Roanoke, we are a separate city that belongs in the 9th.

The 10th district does as drawn does not reflect a community of interest as defined in the statute. Residents of Loudoun are members of the extended suburbs of northern Virginia along with residents of Prince William County. I work and interact with residents of Prince William county. The map has divided up key regions of the technology hub of Northern Virginia. I'm curious to see the ring-approach' referenced in the memo to see if this resolves this problem.

We have lived in this house, directly across the street from the Mount Vernon Estate, for 32 years. Our lives have revolved in the Mount Vernon & Fort Hunt areas in District 8 as we raised 3 sons. Our lives are not focused south of here in District 7. It's arbitrary & capricious to cut the Mount Vernon area, including the Estate, off from its communities for the purposes of representation. With the exception of 1 year, our children attended Fairfax Co. schools north of us in District 8. We are oriented toward the political & societal issues north of us in District 8, along Route 1 & the GW Parkway. This map is a disservice to a significant number of citizens & their everyday interests in their community, including us. We strenuously object to this map placing us in District 7.

Moving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and the Mount Vernon Civic Association from Congressional District #8 and putting it in Congressional District #7 with Stafford and Prince William Counties violates five redistricting requirements: we are split from our contiguous community, does not respect our natural boundaries, denies our participation with our larger community of interest in District #8, removes us from an existing compact district and fails the equity test - many minority students from #8 are taught in our community where we have historically provided Food for Thought packets for those students in greatest need and we raise funds for our community food banks among our Association Members to support the families in need along the Rt 1 corridor.

Please note that I would like to have another committee look at the new redistricting proposals - they just don't make sense 1. There is an existing Mount Vernon Community and keeping the 8th district in -tact including those living along Mount Vernon Memorial Highway Lorton the way it is makes more sense. I'd like to propose that the Mount Vernon Community not be split up - it affects schools, churches, etc.2. Also those living in Mason Neck and East ofI-95 remain with everyone else who lives ininstead of with everyone else who lives in 22303, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309, and 22315. 3. I'm pleased that BelleView and New Alexandria is in thee 16th district. Please reconsider.Thank you for your help. Stephanie Shaefer

As members of the Mount Vernon community, our lives are lived in District 8. Our kids go to school here, we shop here, we eat here, we play here. It is antithetical to our interests/issues to move part of us into District 7.

Even though I live in the 8th and I generally think this map improves on Commission proposals and comes far closer to appropriate partisan representation, I have a couple of major concerns with it: 1) Female incumbents are disproportionately disrupted and moved away from their political bases while male politicians of both parties are in districts that become safer. Luria's shift in particular is especially unnecessary (and the purpose of giving her added Southside turf in a Hampton Roads district is unclear). And if Wexton is to be put in a district that runs 100 miles to the south of her base, it seems unfair to give her Albemarle and not give her Charlottesville. Spanberger's district, of course is moved 75 miles away, leaving her in an R+15 district. 2) Communities of interest, particularly Charlottesville/ Albemarle and the Richmond suburbs are split in manners that dilute their representation. Particularly placing parts of Chesterfield and Charlottesville in the rural 5th and other Richmond suburbs in the 1st CD seems destined to ensure that suburban considerations are treated as an afterthought or worse. Though Spanberger's district and the Richmond suburbs may not be easy to remedy, there are ways to remedy most of the remaining issues. Charlottesville and Albemarle can be kept whole either in the 10th or the 5th. Luria can be given a district that avoids unnecessary change from her current district. Wexton can be given a slightly bluer district to mitigate the disruption of extending her district as much as 100 miles to the South. I urge consideration of communities of interest and avoiding disproportionate disruption of representation by women members of Congress as you work to finalize this map. With some moderate adjustments you can make this a map that is viewed as more representative and fair than its predecessor! I urge you to strive towards this goal

I am a resident in the Mount Zephyr Subdivision, within the Mount Vernon District, for 17 years. I am member of the Mount Zephyr Citizens Association, my husband has served as Treasurer. I am past President (2020) of the Whitman Middle School PTSA and actively engaged in the MVHS PTSA. Both my husband and I serve as adult volunteers in local BSA and Girl Scout Troops. Our children play or have played in Gunston soccer, Woodlawn Baseball and Fort Hunt Baseball/basketball. We use the Sherwood Hall library. Neighbors send their children to St. Louis Catholic school. Our lives take place in the Mount Vernon/Ft Hunt areas as is common with most of our neighbors. My neighborhood of Mount Zephyr engages with many of the youth programs north of us in the Fort Hunt area. Students involved in the AAP program from Riverside ES and Washington Mills ES attend Carl Sandburg Middle school before returning to Mount Vernon. I understand that the redistricting would not affect boundary changes but would affect our School Board representative and Supervisor. I have no knowledge of the needs of the Fredericksburg or Manassas communities that it being proposed I vote with. I am not sure how Mount Vernon was not considered as a community of interest when considering redistricting for the next 10 years. I do not support any proposals which splits the Mount Vernon HS Pyramid or the Mount Vernon Supervisor's District in half.

Charlottesville and Albemarle are one community of interest and should be kept together.

The commission’s original C1 House map made the most sense. And it was agreed to in bipartisan fashion by Republican and Democrat mail drawers. What more can you ask for? Go back to the C1 House Map and call it a day. At the very least, take the Fairfax precincts out of the 7th and replace them with three northern Spotsylvania precincts.

Edited to "add Dislike"

Rappahannock county shares no commonality with Loudon county or Albermarle. It is part of the Shenandoah valley and maintains much of the common interests of newly drawn district 6, including conservation of our beautiful landscape, as well as farmland, wildlife preservation, and nature spaces. Our county wants to keep Rappahannock as it is and not become the ever growing suburban sprawl that has become Loudon county, Albermarle county and similar counties.

Rappahannock county shares no commonality with Loudon county or Albermarle. It is part of the Shenandoah valley and maintains much of the common interests of newly drawn district 6, including conservation of our beautiful landscape, as well as farmland, wildlife preservation, and nature spaces. Our county wants to keep Rappahannock as it is and not become the ever growing suburban sprawl that has become Loudon county, Albermarle county and similar counties.

This boundary divides cohesive communities. The boundary should be I95.

Stafford, Fredericksburg, and the upper part of Spotsylvania county would be better represented as part of the 10th and Loudoun, Fauquier, and Prince William would be better served as the 7th. As drawn, Stafford's interests would be overwhelmed by Prince William. As drawn, the upper part of the 10th has little in common with the lower part of the 10th. Not in favor of this map.

The Lorton/Mason Neck community should remain where it is. This area is not part of Prince William County, it is part of Fairfax County. They are separated by both a jurisdictional boundry and a river...my tax dollars, interests, and votes should be in the county and community I live in...not one I do not live in...

Bedford is not in southwest Virginia, take it out and add Salem and more of the Roanoke Valley in the 9th.

This is an example where the current cap on the number of representatives in congress makes this a farce. How can someone represent nearly 780k people effectively over the huge physical size of these districts. #UnCaptheHouse

The new VA CD Dist. #2 Map is a deliberate attempt to defeat Rep. Luria in 2022 and make it very difficult for any future Democrat to represent CD VA #2

There is no mention of the Mount Vernon Community within your proposed redistricting plan. I live in along Old Mill Road and this area needs to remain within the Congressional District 8. I have been in this area for over two decades and as others have stated - we have very little in common with the concerns of the Congressional District 7. Congressional District 8 has numerous historic buildings (Mount Vernon is 1.5 miles from my house) and I have much more involvement & alignment with the issues in the immediate surrounding area rather than rather than Fredericksburg and Manassas (Congressional District 7). this area benefits from being the "Mount Vernon Community" rather than an extension of Fredericksburg and Manassas.

We live in Westgate precinct #613 which should be included in Congressional district #8 along with the rest of the Mt. Vernon magisterial district. The map puts us into Congressional district #7 from which we are totally separated by Fort Belvoir.

Chesterfield County should be added to the 1st CD with Henrico, since we are suburbs of Richmond and a community of interest. Rural Goochland, Fluvanna, Louisa and Hanover could be added to the other rural counties in the 5th CD.

If retaining communities of interest as whole entities is a priority, then the Westgate 613 precinct should remain as part of Congressional District 8, along with our neighbors to the north along the George Washington Parkway, with whom we share common governing, education, infrastructure, security and other interests. Since living in this area, we have shared a common Magisterial District, common public schools and common transportation concerns. We have nothing in common with the concerns of Congressional District 7, and request to remain in CD 8.

Westgate Precinct (613) is literally named for the entrance of Mount Vernon. We ARE Mount Vernon and we deserve local representation from our region. We are all concerned with development in and around the GW Parkway. We are concerned about this portion of Richmond Hwy. We tend to go to Old Town Alexandria to dine or for other recreational activities. This is where our kids go to school, this is where we worship, and this is where we live. Our neighbors are in MOUNT VERNON and in the 8th District. We should be, too. We have nothing in common with Stafford or Prince William County, and will undoubtedly become the orphan child of the 7th Congressional District. This map makes no sense whatsoever and we deserve better.

Salem should stay in the 9th district.

Having the small northern section of Spotsylvania county in the 7th makes little sense, this part of the county should be in the District 10 with the rest of the Spotsylvania County.

Salem should be in the 9th district

I understood the redistributing of District 2 would prioritize not splitting localities at the expense of splitting communities of interest (COI). Unfortunately, this was not the outcome. I request the committee re-examine & adjust their current proposal. Why not split a locality to condense communities of interest, instead of splitting up several COIs?

I have lived at this address for 23 years and in all of that time, I only remember being redistricted once or twice. But in those episodes of redistricting, our part of Mount Vernon always was kept with the rest of Mount Vernon – it was never split off from it as the special masters intend to do with this proposed redistricting. By forming this part of Mount Vernon into a new congressional district with Fredericksburg and Manassas instead of the rest of Mt. Vernon and NOVA; into a new Senate District that runs down to Lake Ridge, Woodbridge, and Lorton; and into a new House of Delegates' district that runs down the same way, we will not have representation that understands the issues specific to Mount Vernon or have the experience that our part of Mount Vernon needs to address the problems that we have – or even the ability to visit our representatives easily. Please keep us with Mount Vernon instead of gerrymandering us out – you are not doing the people of Mount Vernon any favors by this quick fix that allows the special masters to move on with the process – it will reduce fair representation of this portion of Mount Vernon, which is contrary to your mandate.

These new maps divide communties(Western Henrico/Western Chesterfield), divide counties, and divide areas with similar geographical interest. This is effectively diulting voting power and advocacy work on behalf of its residents. These new lines do not allow for proper representation which is critical for those within the voting boundaries. Our counties deserve representation that reflects our similar economic and cultural interests and demographics.

I think these neighborhoods around Mount Vernon, east of Richmond Hwy and north of Jeff Todd Wy, should be part of District 8. Most residents would consider them to be part of their "area". They also have similar interests, especially compared to some of the residents out by Telegraph Rd.

This version of VA-02 is only contiguous because it crosses over the Great Dismal Swamp, a large conservation area with no population, to connect two areas that are otherwise cut off from each other. In other words, it is impossible to drive from one part of VA-02 to another without driving through large portions of VA-03.

I moved to Lake Anna late summer of 2020. The redistricting map is arbitrary and partisan. Since the census was done during a pandemic and is not as comprehensive as it could be to reflect change in demographics, I would think it best to keep previous lines. Changing precincts is very costly and unnecessary.

It seems quite odd to place the heavily African-American cities of Franklin and Suffolk in a district that is dominated by whiter communities on the Eastern Shore and in Virginia Beach and South Chesapeake. This could very well lead to a situation in which African-American voters in these areas are unable to elect a representative of their choice. It would make much more sense for these voters to be living in an opportunity district (VA-03 or VA-04) and have these two communities swapped out for whiter areas of Norfolk or suburban Chesterfield.

Splitting western Henrico County from western Chesterfield County heavily minimizes the voting power of two suburban areas with similar sets of interests. Historically, the voices of voters in suburban parts of central Virginia (Henrico County, Chesterfield County, Albemarle County, and Charlottesville City) have been diluted as these communities have been placed in districts dominated by surrounding rural areas. However, these areas share a common set of community needs that are not reflected on this map. Henrico County and Goochland County have far more in common with Chesterfield and Powhatan than they do with the Northern Neck or the Middle Peninsula. This map leaves large swaths of voters with no voice of their own based on the cracking of suburban communities.

I live in the Westgate 613 . Please keep the FairfaxCounty precinct 613 in the 8th congressional district. 8th district benefits GREATLY from local representation and should include precincts within property owned by the GW Estate. Mt Vernon is too important a national symbol to ignore and the small population change would be inconsequential.

We live in Spotsy County at Lake Anna. Why on earth would our proposed district go all the way up to Loudon County. What happened to having adjacent geographic areas in one district

Why you would choose to divorce Fluvanna County from adjacent areas with commonality of interests is beyond me. I realize the goal is to dissolve a primarily conservative voting district but you could at least have tried to pretend otherwise. You do a huge disservice to the residents when you make political concerns the top priority.

I live in Chesterfield County, presently the 7th district and would be in the 4th with the new map. My concern is that the communities comprising metropolitan Richmond would be split between three congressional districts each with a major rural area and a smaller geographic urban area. The metropolitan Richmond area's interests would be better served by districts reflecting the more urban character of these communities rather than having this urban perspective diluted as the proposed maps are currently drawn. I am a strong supporter of non-partisan redistricting and applaud the Court on this effort over all. I just believe the metro Richmond area deserves congressional representation that better reflects these communities of interests. Thank you.

The Special Masters did not include an explanation in their Memo why the western suburbs were included in District 1. It appears it was simply to add population. This area has far more in common with/connections to Richmond City and Chesterfield County. One only needs to observe the Rt 288 traffic to witness this. I would recommend creating a district that knits this area together or looks westward to Albemarle/Charlottesville which has stronger connections to the area vs. Eastern VA. The only connection is that lots of folks here have river homes there. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

I would kindly ask the court of my beloved Commonwealth to not split my Monticello plantation away from the rest of my Albemarle County.

Naval installations, ship building and other maritime interests are the heart and soul of what should be the CD 2 community of interest. The proposed map misses that mark by a wide margin by including four rural counties that have little or nothing to do with the core community of interest in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth. Those three cities represented in a single CD 2 would holistically combine the naval/shipbuilding/maritime community of interest in Hampton Roads. In terms of compactness the current map is far to spread out. Franklin to the top end of Accomack County is at least 160 miles. Additionally, a Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth district would be a better balance of minority interests in the area.

This map is abuse to the residents of Central Virginia who are split up like the center of a Pizza. I can drive 20 minutes from my home in Lake Monticello in the 1st District to Charlottesville (where I/my family work, get their education, medical care, news media, groceries, shopping, etc.) cross both the 5th District and 10th District in doing so. If I drive another 10 to 15 minutes West on 64 I'll be in the 6th District. My local TV stations Neilson Demographic Area has 4 Congressional Districts in it's tiny viewing area. How does that make any sense at all? As a resident of Fluvanna county it is ridiculous that my Congressional District would stretch all the way to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. This district separates us from our communities of interest (Albemarle-Charlottesville). Lake Monticello is a bedroom community that is dependent of Charlottesville-Albemarle for it's jobs, food, education, medical care, news media, entertainment, transportation outlets, etc. This map essentially put's us under the thumb of Williamsburg and the Coast. We will be the afterthought of the 1st District, while the 5th & 10th Districts will determine our livelihoods for the things that matter to our everyday lives - yet we will have no say at all on who those representatives should be. Additionally, splitting Albemarle county up goes against Amendment One's provisions to keep counties whole and not split up communities of interest. Central Virginia is a region that matters and is not just an area that can be played with to make the maps work. We are a community of interest and legitimate "Hub Communities" need to be kept together in order for our representation to be fair and unfragmented. This map victimizes our representation for our communities of interest that we rely on in our everyday lives and should not stand.

This is obviously an effort to blend and merge North Stafford with Northern VA and their liberal views, We are not part of the nova area and have nothing in common with views or needs from the representatives.

I greatly appreciate the committee’s attempts to draw fair and impartial districts. But these attempts fall short in several areas: 1) The new districts are expected to put all three female incumbents at a significant disadvantage, while only negatively impacting one male incumbent. And that male incumbent at least lives very close to his new district. It has been reported that one female incumbent would live 50 miles from her existing district. We need to treat female incumbents just as well as the male incumbents. 2) As currently drawn, the maps would split up the Richmond area into three districts, each with combinations of rural and suburban areas. When Richmond’s suburbs of Henrico and Chesterfield were split up, it appears no attempt was made to keep this community of interest together. a. Zion Crossroads in western district 1 is a rural area. Yet it is very different from Mathews County and other rural areas of the eastern part of the district on the bay. Mathews County is likely to have severe flooding problems from global warming, but Zion Crossroads will not. (At least not from the ocean or bay.) Both Zion Crossroads and Mathews County have little in common with western Henrico County. b. Western Chesterfield County has little in common with South Boston. But they are both in District 5. c. Chesterfield and Henrico Counties have much in common. Although split by the James River, they have multiple bridges connecting each other and they are served by the same transit system, GRTC. Their economies are tied together and virtually everyone in the area socializes with people, works with people, and/or shops in stores in the other county. People from both counties attend cultural events in both counties. Very rarely do people from Chesterfield and Henrico attend cultural or social events in Chatham, Lynchburg, or Mathews County. The Chesterfield/Henrico Community of Interest has been split apart. By splitting these suburbs of Richmond up, their voting power and influence will be significantly degraded. d. The GRTC transit system serves Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. But based on these new districts, these areas will be represented by 3 different people in Congress. This will further dilute the voting power of citizens in the greater Richmond area. Chesterfield and Henrico are so diluted into rural districts that their new representatives may have no interest in seeking funding for public transportation. 3) Albemarle County was kept together in the House of Delegates and State Senate district maps as a community of interest, but it was split up in the Congressional maps. This makes no sense. If we can keep Albemarle County together in the House of Delegates and State Senate maps, we should certainly be able to keep Albemarle County together in the same congressional district. 4) Albemarle County has much more in common with the counties of Henrico and Chesterfield than it does with the two rural districts it was split into. If Zion Crossroads in western District 1 can be in the same district as western Henrico and in the same district as Mathews County in eastern district 1, then Albemarle County could easily be in the same district as the western Richmond suburbs’ district. This would make more sense. The current maps dilute the voting power of, and therefore the interests of, both the suburbs of Richmond and the suburbs of Charlottesville. Albemarle County was kept together in the House of Delegates and State Senate district maps as a community of interest, but the suburbs of Richmond were not kept together in the Congressional maps. Chesterfield and Henrico are each roughly three times the size of Albemarle County. We should be able to keep the suburbs of Richmond together as this is clearly a community of interest.

A better map than the commission's, but please establish a proper Central Virginia district to reflect this very real cultural/political area and to stop the longstanding and unfair process of drowning out Charlottesville/Albemarle's voice in a sea of unrelated, unpopulated areas to its south! The absurdity of the split in Albemarle is clear with the line that cuts Charlottesville city away from its own suburbs in Ivy and Whitehall. Combine district 5 and 9 if that is what is needed to give these empty areas sufficient members, but it is unfair and unreasonable for one of Virginia's best-known and most clearly identified regions to be functionally silenced. This has been going on for years with the previous north-south District 5 gerrymander, but now the effect has been reproduced via an absurd split not only of the county but of its most important urban area!

Much better maps than the commission, but you must make a Central Virginia district that sensibly groups Albemarle/Charlottesville with its obvious partner Richmond/Henrico, rather than the southern 5th which is utterly unlike it. The inexcusable severing of Albemarle has been explained as being necessary to give the unpopulated 5th enough residents, but Charlottesville should not suffer yet another political erasure under these maps. Central Virginia is a region with a clear political, educational, and cultural identity, yet even this better map has once again given it short shrift. Toss all of 5 into 9 if needed, just give Charlottesville and Albemarle a voice!

Please consider allocating all counties of the Shenandoah Valley into district 6. It is unfair to those counties in the more western part of Virginia to be left off of the map and is not what the founding fathers intended.

On a macro level, splitting Albemarle County between the 5th and 10th does not make sense. Specifically here, on a micro level, you can see that the town of Crozet has been split along Jarmans Gap Rd, reflecting a lack of knowledge of the area. Highly recommend unifying all of Albemarle (and Charlottesville) into either the 5th or 10th. If not possible, I highly recommend ensuring communities such as Crozet are not divided into separate CDs.

If Powhatan County is part of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area, why are we paired with mostly rural counties?

I acknowledge the desire to develop an objective map for redistricting, however, the proposed map disregards regional ties such as employment centers, shared economic interests and community interests/ social commonality. I am a lifelong Virginia resident and have familiarity with many areas of the state. The proposed map has balkanized the Richmond region so that it is part of three different congressional districts that stretch from the Chesapeake Bay to North Carolina. This makes no sense, and seriously dilutes representation of this region and community at the federal level, as well as jeopardizing the region’s opportunities to successfully compete for federal spending. The Richmond region is defined by the US Census as a designated urbanized area, containing the City of Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover and portions of Goochland, Powhatan and Charles City. These areas have commonality and shared employment centers, as well as area shopping. They are part of a single metropolitan planning area, where local elected officials work to advance common planning for transportation and development. They are also now part of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, which collects regional gas taxes to advance transportation improvements. Those local funds are used to match federal transportation funding for infrastructure. As it stands, the region would have three members of Congress to petition for advancing federal-aid eligible projects. Northern Chesterfield in the proposed map is part of a district that stretches all the way to North Carolina and takes in most of Southside Virginia, including Danville. It has almost nothing in common with these largely rural areas. I would argue that Chesterfield is very closely linked with Henrico as residents of both localities live, work and shop in the same areas. I would also argue that this proximity and interconnectedness spurs common interest. These areas are more linked with the I-64 corridor going west and including Charlottesville, as many commute between both areas to live, work and shop. Only two metro areas in Virginia really suffer this fate under the proposed map- Richmond and Hampton Roads. Northern Virginia districts are largely contiguous, as are the districts in western and southwestern Virginia. Other urbanized areas, like Winchester, Harrisonburg, Fredericksburg, Roanoke, Bristol are not split amongst various congressional districts. As such, I know there are issues with the current districts, however, I would think that minor adjustments to these districts would do more to bring areas of the state with shared interests together, ensure that communities are not split and grouped with far-flung areas of the state they have little in common with, yet still provide for more competitive elections. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. Respectfully, Robert Benjamin Mannell, 2301 Cromwell Rd. North Chesterfield, VA 23235

The proposed new 7th District is nothing short of a gerrymandered District. No part of Spotsylvania County should be in the new 7th District that is especially true of any part of Spotsylvania County west of I-95 the new 7th District should not the south of the Rappahannock River when it comes to Spotsylvania County Spotsylvania County has nothing in common with anyone north of the Rappahannock River. The only reason for adding Northern Spotsylvania County to the 7th District is to dilute the vote of the citizens of Spotsylvania County. Please reconsider the entire new 7th District, or at minimum please do not add any part of Spotsylvania County to the 7th District the people of Spotsylvania County do not want to be part of the new 7th District this is pure gerrymandering. Please listen to the people of Spotsylvania County and keep Spotsylvania County whole in the new 10th District if these current proposals hold. I was involved in redistricting and the majority of the people in Spotsylvania County made it clear during the redistricting process that Spotsylvania County wants to be kept whole and not be part of anything north of the Rappahannock River. I know this a hard task, I know because I was involved. But adding Spotsylvania to the 7th makes no sense! Thank you

You're cracking and packing my chain of family KFCs into different districts. You Virginians still haven't gotten over Kentucky's admission into the Union, and have resorted to tactics to gerrymander my chain of Kentucky Friend Chickens. Unacceptable. Chickens have rights too! #ChickensHaveRights

The Fredericksburg area localities share geography and history and the same businesses and a judicial circuit and should not be carved up and joined with Loudoun County a remote county that borders Maryland and West Virginia and shares none of these.

I am currently located in the 7th District. I am being moved from an urban Richmond District to a primarily western and southern rural area of the state with little urban type development. This WILL BE a republican district, not a competitive district. I don't understand how this area which is a Richmond suburb is being lumped into this rural conservative areas. These areas have no understanding of urban issues. I recommend that this area be transferred to the 1st District.

It seems that CD3 was drawn with the intention of putting all the minorities in the Hampton Roads area into one district. This does a great disservice to minority and majority populations. Minorities should be able to be represented by those they choose, and majority populations must not be able to ignore minority populations.

Why are Williamsburg, York County, and James City County being split from Hampton Roads? This district is huge and doesn't reflect the reality of the region at large. Southern JCC and W-burg have less in common with Goochland than they do Newport News.

The 2nd Congressional District should start with the cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk, to include the Virginia Eastern Shore and then Hampton, Portsmouth or Chesapeake. Norfolk and Virginia Beach share both military infrastructure and bedroom communities of the Norfolk Naval Base including Little Creek, Oceana Master Jet Base, Dam Neck as well as the Norfolk Naval Base and Air Station. It is a travesty not to include these 2 cities together in one CD, as it was before and for so long.

Splitting Albemarle is unacceptable for our congressional maps. This map divides the Western Albemarle High School school population area, diluting the voice of parents and students in the district when voting. Albemarle and Charlottesville are a community of interest and should be kept whole in the congressional map.

Please leave Salem in the 9th! We are in no way Roanoke! That’s why Salem became a city, we relate more to the good folks in the ninth. If it’s not broken do not try to fix it, leave us in the 9th.

Glad to see CD2 become more geographically cohesive, but moving the Norfolk portion of the Naval Base into a separate CD from the other Naval installations in the area seems to counter to keeping communities of interest together. Many service members work in Norfolk, but live in VB or Chesapeake. Please consider redrawing portions or Norfolk back into CD2. These soldiers and service members deserve to have their voices heard and not diluted.

What are you all doing leaving out what belongs to the Commonwealth by divine right? The Wheeling Convention was nothing more than a farcical congregation of deceitful ingrates seeking to divide what is ALL VIRGINIA!

It seems like so much there was so much focus put on keeping the 3rd District compact that the 2nd District was a complete afterthought. In terms of communities of interest, Virginia Beach and Norfolk have much more in common and have been well represented by a shared congressperson. The active military and veteran communities in Norfolk and Virginia Beach are the backbone of our community-at-large and would be better served with a shared congressperson than two cities like Suffolk and Virginia Beach would. As it stands, CD2 are the leftover scraps from drawing CD3 and CD4, and we are left with a district that spans a 3-hour drive from one corner to the other when the way it was previously drawn was so much better.

What in God's name are you all thinking leaving out what belongs to Virginia by divine right? The Wheeling Convention was nothing more than a farcical congregation of deceitful ingrates seeking to divide what is ALL VIRGINIA.

Having read through the comments already here there is a consistent theme with respect to Albemarle County and Charlottesville which are closely joined and aligned. We already have no real representation in Congress which was the reason the district was drawn as it is previously. Both of these jurisdictions should be a part of the tenth. I am sure that realigning adjacent districts slightly to maintain population parity is possible, but this map just perpetuates the exclusion of this area from meaningful representation.

This divides Albemarle County in half and leaves Charlottesville with the southern, more rural half. We have never really had a representative in Congress, especially now, and with this we still won't. Sure, someone is elected, but they do not even begin to represent people living here, never spend time here (no one votes for them here) and are unresponsive when contacted (because no one votes for them here). Put Charlottesville in the 10th and adjust the 4th somewhat to compensate for the population. We need to have a voice in Congress and this map denies us that.

As someone who literally lives right on the line for VA-10 and VA-7. It makes absolutely no sense to put us in North Spotsy in VA-7. We are swing voters. So why put us in a non-swing district? If we decide to go Republican, our votes don't matter because Prince William County as well as Manassas and Manassas Park cities decides who our Rep is. In VA-10 our vote actually matters. If we decide Democratic. We'll have a Dem Rep. If we decide Republican. We'll have a GOP Rep.

Charlottesville/Albermarle County should not be split this way. Neither should Roanoke County in Southwest Virginia. I appreciate the compact districts overall and the creation of a Prince William County-based congressional district.

Every article which comments on the maps notes that the maps favor democrats. Democrats on the commission and in the legislature opposed any previous maps because they did not favor democrats. Hmmm. So apparently this is one of the goals, despite what the masters stated. The lines should be based on geographic commonality and equal representation, not which party has been winning favor in VA lately. It is also prejudice to account for black representation in determining constitutionality but not consider hispanic or asian minorities which are large block also in VA. Maybe they are trending republican more and that may have skewed results more evenly or favoring slightly republicans. You really need to reassess the congressional map, especially for central VA

This map has many problems, but this VA-2 & VA-3 setup is grotesque and perverse. It's a blatant gerrymander meant to disenfranchise the military and veteran families of Norfolk. Just put them back in VA-2 so their votes can matter.

Splitting Albemarle County between the 5th and 10th districts, and putting the entirety of Charlottesville in the 5th district does nothing other than dilute the will of the people in one of the most, if not the most, populous areas of central Virginia. Put Albemarle/Charlottesville, in their entirety, in either the 5th or the 10th, but splitting them has done here is a travesty and makes a mockery of democracy in Virginia.

So now, when I drive the short distance (less than 5 miles) from my house in Bon Air, up Huguenot Rd, over the Huguenot Rd bridge, to the University of Richmond, I would leave CD5, cross CD 4, cross CD 1, and then re-enter CD4. Just to highlight the ridiculous boundaries of the 3 districts in the Richmond metro suburbs. These districts need to be redrawn so the western Richmond suburbs are in a single Congressional district.

Chesterfield and Henrico counties should not be split up. Both of these counties are split between multiple districts in this iteration. They each should be kept whole within their new Congressional districts.

My community of interest is the Rose Hill Neighborhood of Charlottesville, VA. We are a racially and culturally diverse neighborhood and are designated as an historic neighborhood. Jackson P. Burley Middle School is across the street from my house. It is an Albemarle County school. Charlottesville is completely surrounded by Albemarle County. Albemarle County should NOT be split down the middle. It should stay intact and be included in the same Congressional district with Charlottesville!

Charlottesville and Albemarle County should not have split representation. It makes much more sense for the county and city to be included in the 10th district.

Albemarle and Charlottesville should be together in one district as much as possible. Also, why are the combination of counties so different between the congressional and the state representation? It seems to me that the community interest is the same and the lines should represent that

I was under the impression that the people hired to produce these maps were to maintain “Communities of Interest” as much as possible. This map does nothing to maintain “Communities of Interest” in most of the state and should be completely redrawn to reflect that goal. For example, Charlottesville, an obvious cultural and educational center, is set at the absolute top of the 5th Congressional District but Ivy, Earlysville, and other suburbs to the north and northeast are in the 10th Congressional District, the area west of the top of the Blue Ridge is in the 6th Congressional District, and finally Lake Monticello, Louisa, and the areas to the east and southeast of the city are in the 1st Congressional District. Is this a partisan effort to make the city of Charlottesville disappear from the electoral process? It appears so. Charlottesville is not the only city so treated. A close look at this map will show that Richmond, Lynchburg, and Roanoke are also treated as areas to be electorally diluted. Lynchburg and Charlottesville are two separate communities of interest and should not be in the same Congressional district. Lynchburg could better be placed in a district drawn from Appomattox in the east to Roanoke in the west. That’s a community as I see it. There appears to be no Community of Interest endeavor on this map except where it could not be avoided. These communities are our centers of culture, industry, education, and innovation yet these “mappers” electorally hid them in the closet. They should be able to do better than that. We should accept nothing less than that.

I do not like any redistricting maps that show finger-like projections that reach out and grasp certain financial, ethnic, or other specific groups. Keswick is a bedroom community of Charlottesville and located in Albemarle County. Leave it as part of the 5th District!

In my earlier comment, re. 8th, 11th & 7th District discussion, I said "Northern Neck" and meant to say "Mason Neck." (just got too excited I guess!)

It is with some consternation that I have viewed the maps as drawn by the Special Masters for the Supreme Court of Virginia. I am most interested in the Northern Virginia portion of the maps, and thusly that is the area on which I will comment. Having lived in Northern Virginia since 1976, I would say that there are certain areas (the 8th, 11th and 7th Congressional Districts on the proposed maps), that appear to have been drawn without much information on or consideration of the nature of the communities and flow of life and activities in those new districts. It appears that the Special Masters had no real knowledge or understanding that Mount Vernon et al is one community! Specifically, the 8th Congressional District, and the 11th Congressional District are of major interest to me, as well as the 7th District on the new map. It is most concerning that sections of the Mount Vernon Community (yes, community is exactly the right word), those land parcels geographically located contiguous with the property of Mount Vernon (Plantation), have been taken from those communities, and in fact from parts of the greater Mount Vernon Community, with which they are most aligned. “Westgate” is in fact the West Gate of the Mount Vernon Plantation, and is intimately involved with community life in the area. Many of the normal civic and life activities of residents are rather neatly and naturally divided on the south by Fort Belvoir. (These are folks who would naturally be talking with each other about how things are going, and what they thought of what the government was doing in their community. A pretty good indicator of common interests!) Additionally, although County governmental boundaries are not necessarily a major consideration, government resources provided to the new 7th District would primarily come from Prince William and Stafford Counties, while the Mount Vernon section of the new district would receive resources from Fairfax County. These resources would necessarily be provided to address quite different priorities. Congressional representation is certainly quite different from County or State House and Senate representation, but I truly believe that when possible, those jurisdictions should be aligned so that the everyday concerns of citizens can be more efficiently and effectively addressed. My primary suggestion for modifying the proposed maps would be to incorporate those parts of the Mount Vernon area existing between the Mount Vernon Plantation and extending to the northern boundary of Fort Belvoir at US Route 1, and the Northern neck immediately to the south of Fort Belvoir be included in the revised maps for Congressional Districts 8 and 11, allowing Occoquan Bay to be a natural boundary between the 8th, the 11th and the 7th. I believe that the normal life interests, and thus the necessary representation of residents living in the Mount Vernon and Mason Neck areas more closely align with those residents in the new 8th and 11th than in the new 7th.

How did you leave the district covering central va to last and draw and quarter it as a complete after thought? What do suburban henrico residents have in common with the northern neck? Congresswoman Spanberger has tirelessly served her consitutents and resolved the vast backlog of issues left behind by her predecessor. If we are lumped in with the 7th, we will be back to no longer being served when so many are desperate for support. Also, is it a coincidence that all 3 women in the current congressional delegation are weakened by these maps and the men are all bolstered? I think not. There has got to be a better way.

This is a disappointment. Goochland has close ties to Powhatan County, we share water utilities, we have common agencies such as Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District, we belong in the same district. Secondly we are severed from Richmond and Charlottesville our natural partners and we are now somehow part of Virginia's beach front? These are some very unhappy choices.

Go back and do it again you totally screwed this up. Stafford and Fredericksburg need to be with Spotsy or King George. Quit trying to balance demographics and just go by population only.

Dividing the Charlottesville/Albemarle County area into 3 different districts completely dilutes the votes of residents in that area. It's been incredibly difficult to get our current or past congressional representatives to even listen to the concerns of constituents here because we are lumped in with a largely rural area whose voters outnumber us and have very different interests from ours. Dividing the area into 3 different districts will make it even harder to have our collective voices heard and represented. Better to keep Charlottesville and Albemarle together.

I live in the current 7th district in Louisa County. Abigail Spanberger is my representative. With the redistricting my county gets lumped in with the Northern Neck and Hampton Roads, nice areas indeed, but with no commonalities with Louisa. Meanwhile, Spanberger gets placed in McEachin's district. All three female congressional representatives are in serious jeopardy of losing their seat, if not their district. The new 7th district is an hour away from Spanberger's home in Henrico. Is this a coincidence?

Unlike the Virginia HOD and Senate maps, which I think are generally well done, the Congressional Map does not properly group "communities of interest" even if it might meet other redistricting criteria. As a Bon Air resident (living within walking distance of the City of Richmond and within a short drive to Henrico over any of three bridges), my communities of interest lie along the Route 360 corridor, the Powhite, and long Interstate 64 West. My proposed district (CD5) should therefore include the Counties on either side of the James River along Interstate 64, including western Henrico, Goochland, etc., all the way to Charlottesville and Albemarle, before it should include the far flung rural areas along the North Carolina border. Those areas have different issues and deserve different representation in Congress, just as my community deserves representation for those living along the James River between C'ville and Richmond.

Keep Albemarle County and Charlottesville together, please and thank you.

Albemarle County and Charlottesville are functionally a single community of interest that should be kept together in a congressional district. Roughly following I-64 to split the county doesn't reflect the dynamics of the community (and actually appears to split the community of Crozet.) Ideally, all of Charlottesville and Albemarle would join the 10th district--the community has more in common in terms of demographics and culture with Loudoun than Southside. Keeping in mind the challenges of balancing population, pulling in Charlottesville and the remainder of the Crozet growth area to the 10th would keep areas of population growth and designated expansion (the 29 corridor north of Cville, the western growth area) united with communities further north with similar dynamics.

This map overall seems to balance the political parties very well, and I think it is clearly not a partisan gerrymander. My issue with the map comes with the dilution of the voting power of western Chesterfield and Henrico county. Both areas that have been recently shifting towards the democratic party have been split up, and lumped in with dark red districts.

Rather than split Charlottesville, move both the city and the county to the 6th, and then add Bedford to 5th to partially compensate.

Bedford County needs to move into 5th district. Most of the county lives & works in the Lynchburg area and their votes would impact the area that they live and work in rather than go to the 9th where they aren't impacted.

Would really like to see Albemarle County in one district rather than split. The shared interests of Albemarle and Charlottesville would be better served with one representative.

The original redistricting commissions combined US house map is make sense and better. That map should be applied.

Franklin County does not belong in the 9th Congressional District. We are more closely aligned with Southside than Southwest Virginia. Floyd and Patrick are not easily accessible from Franklin only via several narrow, winding roads not recommended for truck traffic. Franklin has been in the Fifth for generations. It would make more sense to include all of Roanoke County and Salem in the 9th.

Virginia's growing minority population deserves a new minority influence district. The new 7th district is set up perfectly for just such a candidate; Hala Ayala who beat the me by an embarrassingly large margin when I ran for delegate.

Please go back to the drawing board with dividing the greater Charlottesville metropolitan and economic area into three districts. It is ridiculous to split the city in half.

What does the southern part of this 10th district have in common with Loudoun County? Most of it is rural and we get lumped into the the wealthiest urban part of the state? This makes zero sense.

I would like to be gerrymandered into the 10th District.

I fled Arlington to get away from far left members of Congress. Now my family and I are being lumped back into NoVa. Stafford Co. belongs with similar Spotsylvania Co. and King George Co. This map is inconsiderate of Virginians like myself who want distance from DC. If I wanted to be with NoVa politically I'd go back to the hellhole that is Arlington!

Please keep the Fairfax County precinct 613 - Westgate in the 8th Congressional. This relatively small precinct is literally the West Gate for George Washington's Mount Vernon estate which benefits greatly from the representation by a local legislator. The 8th district includes the entire George Washington Parkway and should include all the precincts surrounding the estate. Mount Vernon is too important of a national symbol to ignore and the small population change would be inconsequential.

Why is this part of Spotsylvania part of the 7th district? It makes no sense. If its because of proximity to Fredericksburg, then why is everything southwest part of the 10th? The people here are pretty much cut off participating with the rest of their county in who their congressional representative is. Democrat or Republican, Spotsylvania residents here are just not represented.

Please keep the Fairfax County precinct 613 - Westgate in the 8th Congressional. This relatively small precinct is literally the West Gate for George Washington's Mount Vernon estate which benefits greatly from the representation by a local legislator. Mount Vernon is too important of a national symbol to ignore and the small population change would be inconsequential.

This map is worse than the ones the commission came up with! Locks in 6 guaranteed Democrat seats in a state that is closer to 5-5-1. Even worse, it looks like the Special Masters have no clue about what the community in central VA is actually like. We have NOTHING in common with urban Loudoun County. I understand wanting to put Culpeper into the same district as parts of Albemarle, but we should not just be an appendage of yet another NOVA district. This map is ugly, unfair, and lacks any sort of consideration for the people of central VA. Keep Loudoun in NOVA. Do not bring it all the way down to Culpeper.

All of Roanoke County should be in the 6th. Splitting the county into the 6th and the 9th is indeed confusing and confounding for party activities and elections.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ROANOKE COUNTY SPLIT BETWEEN TWO CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS (6 & 9). It causes our voters a great amount of confusion at the polls on Election Day and fails to respect recognized community and political boundaries.

Connecting Loudoun Co to a group of smaller exurban/rural counties and northern Albemarle is ridiculous. This map allows the mega NOVA counties to elect 4 members of the delegation. This is unfair from a regional standpoint, and communities of interest. Northern VA should have three, compact seats centered on Arl-Alex-FC, Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun.

The 4th is a packed district. Henrico should not be sliced in two. Eastern Henrico should be part of the 1st.

It appears like lines were drawn to dilute republican strength, especially with Louisa

Why oh why is the city of Charlottesville still in District 5 yoked to southside?? (And why is Albemarle County cut in half and split between districts?) Culturally and economically, Charlottesville has more in common with NOVA in District 10 than with conservative rural areas all the way at the NC border.

Think it makes no sense that my subdivision in town of louisa is in district with the eastern part of the state. line should divide main street south or we should be connected with Orange, fluvanna, Albemarle. Especially delinking with Orange makes no sense. Since zion crossroads was already carved out in the state representative maps, the map should distinguish between south of main street and west of 208 in louisa. I live in Louisa, work in charlottesville and go to church in Orange. no connection with the east. I understand it may be different for those in Lake Anna and east of 208

I know that population growth was biggest in northern Virginia- however, the population growth overall was the not big enough to warrant four whole congressional districts. Also, Albermarle being split up is unfair to that community of interest and feels like an attempt to gerrymander more democrat votes out of the locality.

Powhatan is really an outer suburb of Richmond. We are benefitting from the current economic boom and have little in common with those Southside VA communities that have been suffering through a long recession. We really are part of the RVA community and the maps should reflect that.

I appreciate that my county, Albemarle, has been split into only two districts, but the way it’s been divided makes no sense. Dividing it east to west, while still not ideal, would at least make more sense in terms of uniting communities with shared interests. I have no doubt this is a fairer map on the whole, but the way my neighborhood and neighboring Charlottesville are still tacked on to the 5th still leaves our votes drowned out and ignored by everyone south of us.

Speaking only about the effect on me, I *do not like* being moved back into the non-competitive 1st district from the competitive 2nd district.

The memo illuminates the weird choices made regarding district 10, 7, and 5. Charlottesville, Albemarle and the Piedmont of central VA is a hub, a media market, and in the Piedmont physiographic region where agriculture, forestry and open space are shared community interests (and remain big economic driver in the commonwealth). The revisions to follow must start from this Albemarle centered area and radiate out, not trickle down from Loudon. I note our House Ag committee natural resources Rep has been entirely drawn out of her district, leaving us without an informed voice. Ag and conservation are a large shared community of interest to urban, suburban and rural citizens I n central VA, centered on Albemarle and extending north into Orange,Greene, Louisa, and beyond. Commuters cross the Blue Ridge on i64 and rt33. Start with Charlottesville and radiate out rather than trickling down from NoVA. Revise please.

There is no need to split Bedfor county it should be entirely togethern in the 5th or 6th where it has been over the years. On the flip side, move salem into the 9th. Morgan Griffith lives there and there is no reason to pull it out

Splitting the Richmond metro area into three different districts is entirely illogical other than for purely political purposes. It breaks communities of interest up in a completely arbitrary and unnecessary way. This map's entire premise should be rejected outright by the Supreme Court.

I have been in the 2nd Congressional for most of my voting life. 30 years or so. This is terrible to be drawn into 3rd district that is not competitive and my vote does not count at all.

All residential side streets that connect to Kingstowne Village Parkway belong to the Kingstowne HOA. The entire Kingstowne HOA is in the 8th CD except this small section, which should also be included to keep the community of Kingstowne together.

CD2 should maintain its portion of Norfolk which would keep the district more compact and ensure proper representation of our large military and veteran population.

Crozet is an area of intense growth, and there are intense divisions about how that growth should be managed: both state and county officials need to be involved in these processes, and the town needs unified representation. Dividing it in two in this way would be damaging to the town and its citizens but also to the entire county. It's absurd, irresponsible, and unnecessary, and suggests that the maps have been drafted with little knowledge or concern about the state and its citizens.

While I appreciate a lot about this map, splitting Abermarle county in this way is wholly unnecessary. By swapping a handful of counties and precincts between Districts 1, 4, 5, and 10, the number of split counties can be reduced while maintaining population equity and compactness. This can be accomplished by placing all of Abermarle county and Charlottesville in District 10 and moving the portion of Spotsylvania county in District 10 to District 1 instead. The population of District 5 can then be made up by giving it the counties of Fluvanna, Goochland and Louisa as well as a couple of precincts from District 4 in Chester county, which they already split. The populations of Districts 1 and 4 can then be evened out by trading a handful of precincts in Henrico county, which they again already split and which actually marginally increases the minority population of District 4. Please see attached screenshot for adjusted district lines and the population breakdown of these new districts.

While Albemarle County is contained in state House and Senate drafts, I'm disappointed that our county is split between congressional districts. We share more in common with Central Virginia and the Piedmont than Southside, and Charlottesville-Albemarle is a community of interest with unique and distinctive history, and shared resources, commuters and media. We share more in common with the Richmond suburbs and exurbs than the small towns and farmland to the South. Please keep our community together to better reflect our needs and identity in the halls of power.

Disappointed that Roanoke, Blacksburg and Radford aren't together in one Congressional district. I would prefer Blacksburg and Radford to be placed into the 6th as this community doesn't have anything to do with the extremely rural 9th.

Weird split of Albemarle County. I feel like the people in this area made it quite clear that they did not want the county split. I understand that this process is difficult and boundaries have to be drawn somewhere, but why not include the rest of Albemarle County in this proposed 5th district? It's already completely within the current 5th district.

I'm very concerned as it appears this map would put one of our two Black incumbents in the same district as one of our three women incumbents

Putting the western Richmond suburbs in Henrico in with the 1st district that doesn't make much sense to me. The first district stretches very far from Richmond. I think the western Richmond suburbs deserve better representation in Congress than this.

Looks like bit of a Democrat Gerrymander. To fix this I think the North Part of Albemarle county should be put in district 6 and District 10 should get some of the red parts of District 6

Completely agree with other comments that district 10 makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Albemarle is completely different from Loudoun -- different communities, different media markets, and should be in different districts

Please keep Tysons, Virginia together as a community of interest. This small slither in the 8th district should be given over to the 11th district. All of the other maps protect this community, and the change is so small that it would not make the maps deviate too far from the population target. As a resident of Tysons, I implore you to allow us to vote together with one voice in Congress, as you have allowed us to in the House of Delegates and Senate.

These maps are horrible. What does Goochland have in common with the Northern Neck or Hampton Roads? Putting us with the 1st District takes us out of a competitive district (current 7th District) and puts us in an R +10 District. What happened to voters choosing their representatives? What happened to keeping communities of interest together? This district isn't even compact.

Putting half of Norfolk into the 2nd and Suffolk/Isle of Wight areas back into the 3rd makes more sense on every level: (A) It's more compact. (B) It better preserves communities of interest: Norfolk's Superward 6 communities (Oceanview/Larchmont/etc, see attachment) overlap with VB as a community of interest where a high % of residents work + know each other across city lines, while Suffolk/Isle of Wight share more with Portsmouth in the 3rd. (C) It strengthens minority representation, keeping the 3rd at 48% much closer to its current Black %. (D) Least importantly but nonetheless, Rep. Luria's Norfolk residence is kept in district. See attachment for image: By exchanging this half of Norfolk into the 2nd for Suffolk/Isle of Wight into the 3rd, all of these objectives are achieved without affecting any of the other districts, and, in fact, it (E) increases population parity along the way.

Splitting the Richmond metro into three separate districts is totally unnecessary. Packing Western Henrico into a district that stretches from the depths of the Piedmont all the way to the outskirts of Hampton Roads leaves all of these communities without an advocate in Congress. Richmond, a midsized metro area, more than deserves its own district.

Unnecessarily splits Albemarle County into 2 Congressional districts. Albemarle County should be kept entirely within the 5th Congressional District, it is not the same Community of Interest as Northern Virginia (Loudoun and Fauquier counties in the 10th District)

This map represents a Democrat gerrymander. A state that is basically a 6-5 Dem state is saddled with a 7-4 Democrat map?!? This map is grossly unfair. It divides communities of interests across the state- especially in the Fredericksburg and Charlottesville areas- and basically makes Northern VA the hub of a wheel, with other disassociated areas attached to it. Redo this map. Make it fair.

You can make the 2nd far more compact by restricting it to the Eastern Shore/VB/Chesapeake and part of Norfolk. The 3rd should retain parts of the Peninsula/Norfolk/Portsmouth, but also take in Suffolk/Emporia, etc. This would strengthen the voting power of African Americans in the 3rd and improves maintaining communities of interest as opposed to the proposed map.

This map packs suburban Washington DC into fewer congressional districts limiting our representation in Congress. I am also concerned that the districts currently represented by female representatives appear to have had the most drastic boundary changes, a female resident of VA having female voices in Congress in addition to my quite capable representative in the 11th district is important to me.