02/20/14: Give Virginia’s voters real choices

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

AFTER THE 2007 elections, the Virginia General Assembly found itself split. Republicans controlled the House of Delegates and Democrats the state Senate.

The Virginia Redistricting Coalition, a bipartisan effort to change the way voting lines are drawn, was born.

In 2014, the legislature is in the same position. A new redistricting group has emerged, with some of the same players and the same goal: to take away from the legislators their ability to choose their voters — and not the other way around.

Same song, second verse.

Unless the public gets involved, the results of this latest effort will be the same as before: no change.

After each decennial census, laws require that district lines be redrawn to reflect shifts in population.

The process actually includes two parts: redistricting and reapportionment, the latter being focused on adjusting the districts to contain populations of roughly the same size. The former is where the lines are drawn containing those people.

No one has a problem with the reapportionment; the concept of “one man, one vote” is universal.

Where the problem lies is in the drawing of the lines — specifically, who gets to draw them.

Custom says that the party in charge gets to do it. But the last thing on the minds of party leaders is the voters.

Political parties are about power — getting it and keeping it. And there’s no easier way to keep power than to draw districts to maximize it. Given the chance, both parties do it.

Lost in this are the voters. We are the ones who show up at the polls and find there’s only one name on the ballot. Or, if there are two, the second is unfamiliar.

Partisan redistricting has a chilling effect on competition. Districts are so heavily Democratic or so heavily Republican that few challengers from the other party emerge. When they do, few think they can win, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as few resources — money, volunteers — flow to the challenger.

The entire General Assembly was last up for election in 2011. Of the 40 Senate seats, just seven races were competitive —that is, decided by a margin of 10 points or less. In 13 districts, the incumbent ran unopposed. The House also saw just seven competitive contests. Of the 100 seats available, a whopping 61 ran unopposed.

Maybe the delay in the passage of redistricting plans created enough uncertainty that 2011 was an aberration. But the House elections last November weren’t much better. Just 17 contests were competitive, and 45 incumbents ran unopposed.

Is it any wonder, then, that fewer and fewer participate in our elections?

Something has to change.

Either we have to change the members of the legislature, or we have to persuade those already there to change their minds.

The former means we have to urge others to run or, lacking that, run ourselves. And it means we have to support them, with our time and with our money.

The latter is, in some ways, even more difficult. It’s not easy to persuade someone to voluntarily give up power. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

I wholeheartedly support this latest effort. I’m tired of having just one name on my ballot.

Today, my representatives will hear from me that they, too, should support the idea that we should be allowed to choose them, not the other way around.

Vivian J. Paige served as a member of the advisory board of the Virginia Redistricting Coalition