“Nearly three months to the day after his term as Virginia’s governor ended, Republican Glenn Youngkin stood in an unshaded corner of an office parking lot to warn dozens of conservative activists that they were in the midst of “the most important election” in the commonwealth’s 237-year history.”

“The question before the voters casting ballots at an early voting precinct a few yards away in the city of Leesburg ahead of Tuesday’s special election was whether to temporarily set aside Virginia’s congressional maps intended to advantage neither party and replace them with a new version that could allow Democrats to win all but one seat in the 11-member delegation in the November midterm elections.”

““They want to override the voice of Virginia and push us into what is now being called the most partisan, most gerrymandered map in America, worse than Illinois, worse than California,” Youngkin warned.”

“Left unmentioned by the former governor was the role of Donald Trump, who instigated the nationwide redistricting war last year in an effort to preserve Republican control of Congress for the entirety of his second term, sparking a tit-for-tat between red and blue states that will see its latest skirmish decided on Tuesday, when polls close in Virginia’s redistricting referendum.”

“The question seems to have divided voters in the commonwealth, just five months after they overwhelmingly elected a Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, and gave her allies a sizable majority in the legislature’s lower house.”

“Earlier this month, a survey his school conducted with the Washington Post found 52% of voters back the new maps and 47% are opposed – a much narrower margin than the more than 15-percentage point landslide in which Spanberger was elected to office last November.”

“A similarly small lead for the yes vote has been reported in polls from State Navigate and Quantus Insights.”