Déjà Vu
(Another) Redistricting Ploy
A judge in Virginia just struck down the ballot referendum that passed yesterday in a statewide vote that took place in Virginia. The referendum was a vote on whether or not to change the Commonwealth of Virginia’s constitution to allow the immediate redistricting of Virginia’s Congressional districts, even though mid-decade redistricting isn’t permitted. You see, Virginia is only supposed to redistrict every 10 years in accordance with the federal census.
The court today struck down the amendment as unconstitutional on multiple grounds, since the Democrats who put it on the ballot yesterday didn’t follow proper procedure. Oh, and then there’s that other rather prominent reason… the fact that the redrawn districts were completely gerrymandered by the Dems. How bad? The current makeup of Virginia’s Congressional delegates in the House is 6 Dems to 5 Republicans. Under this new map that the Dems created, the Congressional districts in Virginia would undoubtedly yield 10 Democrat House members, and just 1 Republican! A clear ploy to give the Dems a majority in the House of Representatives during the upcoming mid-term elections in November.
Why is this so abhorrent? What’s wrong with redistricting? Well, there’s nothing wrong with (legally timed) redistricting per se. However, gerrymandering is totally wrong, and illegal. Is gerrymandering cheating? Well, according to a New York poll by pollsters, McLaughlin & Associates, a whopping 81% of New York voters consider gerrymandering to be cheating. The same poll showed that 80% of us believe our election districts should not be drawn to favor one political party over another. And in this case in Virginia, the reason it’s particularly disgraceful is because the Democrats lied to the voters to get them to vote for it! Not to mention the fact that they poured tens of millions of dollars into their lie. According to one news report:
The referendum’s political action group, Virginians for Fair Elections, raised more than $64 million by April 13, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections campaign finance reports.
According to the finance reports, much of the funding came from national Democratic political action organizations in the Washington area, including congressional committees and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the League of Conservation Voters, Common Ground, and The Fairness Project, a labor union-backed activist organization.
What do I mean when I say the Democrats lied to voters about the ballot measure?
Well, the language they put on the ballot yesterday was NOT the same language that would go into their constitution. Instead, the Dems summarized the gerrymandering ballot measure and made it sound legal and “fair” so that the voters would be tricked into voting for it… and 51% of the voters fell for it.
In reality, the language going into the Virginia constitution reads as follows (the words in bold font are what is being added):
The Commonwealth shall be reapportioned into electoral districts in accordance with this section and Section 6-A in the year 2021 and every ten years thereafter, except that the General Assembly shall be authorized to modify one or more congressional districts at any point following the adoption of a decennial reapportionment law, but prior to the next decennial census, in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state’s congressional districts at any point following that state’s adoption of a decennial reapportionment law for any purpose other than (i) the completion of the state’s decennial redistricting in response to a federal census and reapportionment mandated by the Constitution of the United States and established in federal law or (ii) as ordered by any state or federal court to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map.
Compare that to what Virginians actually saw on their ballot yesterday:
To make things worse, there’s another layer to the corruption. In 2020, Virginia voters approved an amendment that transferred the authority for redrawing the Congressional district maps from the Virginia General Assembly to a 16-member redistricting commission which is composed of eight citizens and eight legislators.
The Democrats’ constitutional amendment that passed yesterday did not abolish the redistricting commission, but it does allow the Virginia General Assembly to temporarily amend the congressional maps between decades!
Does all of this chicanery and corruption sound familiar? It is!
For those of you who’ve been following my work, you’ll recall that I spent months in 2023 and early 2024 fighting the gerrymandering of New York’s Congressional districts. What went down in New York is the same harrowed story that Virginia is carrying out now…
New York’s Redistricting Saga
Here in New York, the Democrats (who have 100% control of the state government and all agencies) defied our State constitution, defied a court order, and defied the will of the voters, and redrew our Congressional districts mid-decade. Twice! Former Congressman (now EPA Administrator) Lee Zeldin and I criss-crossed the State speaking out against the redistricting, and raising awareness to the Democrats’ shameful power grab. Ultimately, we were able to stop the Democrats from gerrymandering the maps, despite the fact that the captured courts in New York, including our State’s highest court, were going to allow the Dems to gerrymander.
In Virginia, the language on the ballot hid the true story behind the illegal mid-decade redistricting. Lying to voters about what a constitutional amendment is actually about in order to coerce them to vote in favor of what is actually a sickening power grab, is also a scam that Virginia Dems learned from their New York comrades. Who remembers my epic battle against Prop 1 in 2023 and 2024?
I have written about Prop 1 extensively, but in short, back in 2023 and 2024, as the Democrats in New York State were campaigning around the State telling people to vote yes for Prop 1 because it will enshrine abortion rights into our State constitution and make life “fair” for everyone, Zeldin and I were trying to unveil the Trojan Horse that, if passed, would give the government incredible power over the citizenry, and weaken or abolish our most fundamental rights.
What voters actually saw on their ballot was:
Amendment to Protect Against Unequal Treatment
This proposal would protect against unequal treatment based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy. It also protects against unequal treatment based on reproductive healthcare and autonomy.
A “YES” vote puts these protections in the New York State Constitution.
A “NO” vote leaves these protections out of the State Constitution.
However, the actual language that was going into our Constitution reads as follows (the words in bold were what was added):
Concurrent Resolution of the Senate and Assembly proposing an amendment to section 11 of article 1 of the constitution, in relation to equal protection
Section 1. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That section 11 of article 1 of the constitution be amended to read as follows:
§ 11. a. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof. No person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or], religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in [his or her] their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state, pursuant to law.
b. Nothing in this section shall invalidate or prevent the adoption of any law, regulation, program, or practice that is designed to prevent or dismantle discrimination on the basis of a characteristic listed in this section, nor shall any characteristic listed in this section be interpreted to interfere with, limit, or deny the civil rights of any person based upon any other characteristic identified in this section.
§ 2. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That the foregoing amendment be submitted to the people for approval at the general election to be held in the year 2024 in accordance with the provisions of the election law.
Explanation – Matter in underscored is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted.
Sounds warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? It wasn’t!
Here’s what Prop 1 actually does:
Weakens your parental rights and gives the government control of your children;
makes New York a permanent sanctuary state where illegal immigrants (including criminals) can’t be deported;
opens the door for non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to claim a constitutional right to receive the same tax-payer funded benefits that citizens receive (like government assistance, medicare, social security, disability compensation, subsidized health care, etc.) and could eventually include the right to vote (see my X post on that HERE);
abolishes girls’ sports and female spaces like women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, showers, dormitories, prisons, etc. (see my X post on that HERE);
abolishes single-sex spaces such as high schools, colleges, clubs, organizations, etc.;
chills free speech (see my X post on that HERE);
legalizes reverse discrimination (see paragraph b of Prop One noted above).
Soooo many people asked me how it could be that the language on our ballots differed so drastically from the real language of Prop 1. The reason is because a year or two before the Democrats first proposed Prop 1, they passed a law that allowed them to “summarize” any proposed amendments to our State constitution. Who gets to decide what that “summary” says? You guessed it, the Dems of course! It’s akin to letting the fox guard the hen house.
It’s déjà vu!
The deceptive redistricting of Virginia mirrors New York’s sordid tale almost exactly. From the Democrats improperly placing the amendment on the ballot, to the gross gerrymandering of the Congressional districts, to the defiance of a court order, to the overriding of an independent redistricting commission formerly put into place by the voters, to the deceitful “summary” of the amendment that was put on the ballot to trick voters… this is truly déjà vu.
If you’d like to read more about the redistricting saga of New York in 2023-2024, you can access some of my prior articles on that here:
If you’d like to read more about the Prop 1 scam, you can access some of my prior articles on that here:
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Thanks, Bobbie Anne. We needed that to be explained. The Democrats will do anything to gain and retain power.
The Democratic Party is acting more and more like a terrorist organization. Mr. Trump might be driven to declare that overtly in the months ahead.