RICHMOND — Virginia voters were set to decide whether to draw new congressional districts that could add as many as four Democratic seats to the House of Representatives, casting ballots Tuesday on a referendum that tested their tolerance for partisan gerrymandering amid a national redistricting war.
Polls had closed at 7 p.m. after a day of generally strong turnout for an out-of-season ballot measure election, capping a high-stakes and costly effort by Democrats to counter President Donald Trump’s push to add Republican seats in other states. The race had not been called as of 7:30 p.m.
The Associated Press estimates that 3 million Virginians cast ballots, or 48 percent of registered voters, compared with 55 percent of voters in last year’s gubernatorial election.
Early voting began March 6 and nearly 1.37 million early ballots had been cast as of Saturday, according to state figures, compared with about 1.5 million early votes in the 2025 election.
At least $93 million — most of it in untraceable “dark money” — financed the contest, with supporters of the measure outspending opponents. National Democrats view the state as the biggest prize still available in the national redistricting arms raceahead of this fall’s midterm congressional elections.
Trump sparked the costly effort last year by pushing Republican-led states to create more GOP-leaning districts to help his party maintain its thin majority in the House. Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri responded, and then Democrats counterpunched by passing a referendum to create five new blue-leaning districts in California.
Virginia’s 11 House seats are held by six Democrats and five Republicans, but if voters approve the referendum, Democrats have promised to implement a map that gives them an advantage in 10 districts. Five of them would be anchored in deep-blue Northern Virginia and stretch into rural parts of the state. At least two of the new blue districts — one in Hampton Roads and one in the Shenandoah region — would still be close, based on recent election results.
If Democrats were able to pick up four extra seats in Virginia, it would give the party a slight edge over Republicans in the national battle for control of the House — though redistricting efforts in Florida and other Southern states could yet change the math.
Many voters who showed up at the polls early Tuesday said they found the onslaught of ads on the measure confusing and overwhelming.
Erin Frank, a 38-year-old physician assistant who described herself as a moderate Democrat, read an online sample of Virginia’s redistricting measure repeatedly on Monday night to figure out what it would actually change in her state.
She voted for it on Tuesday in Alexandria because it would give the Democratic Party a leg up. “If other states aren’t going to play by the rules, we have to have the option to redistrict so that we can have more seats on our side,” she said. “It just gives us an upper hand, and we need that right now.”
But Julian Burke, a 79-year-old Republican, voted against the measure from the same Alexandria precinct, saying that redistricting would further skew the state’s maps — which already have deep-blue areas such as in Northern Virginia — outside of the normal process, which relies on the census and an independent commission.
“It would’ve made Virginia lopsided all the way through 2030, and the Democrats have crazy policies,” he said. “Absolutely nuts.”
The vote-yes campaign in Virginia has raised far more money than its more fragmented opposition. Virginians for Fair Elections, which supports redistricting, reported raising $64 million as of a campaign finance deadline last week. About $40 million of that was contributed by House Majority Forward, a political nonprofit supporting House Democrats and led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York). The group is not required to report individual donors.
“We’re urging everyone to vote yes to stop the MAGA power grab,” Jeffries said Monday during a news conference. He and Virginia’s top Democrats, who control the state legislature, have held rallies around the state in recent weeks, and former president Barack Obama has appeared in several vote-yes advertisements. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has also endorsed the campaign, but has not been as gung-ho in support as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was in that state. She initially argued that Democrats could pick up seats without redrawing the maps.
The vote-no campaign has been led by several smaller groups in different parts of the state. Virginians for Fair Maps, the best-funded, is led by former state attorney general Jason S. Miyares and had raised about $19 million as of the most recent deadline. It has not yet been required to disclose any of its donors.
Former governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has joined Miyares for a handful of public vote-no events, while Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had scheduled a telephone rally for Monday night.
The referendum asks voters whether to amend the Virginia Constitution to temporarily allow partisan redistricting; the state would revert to its existing bipartisan redistricting commission in 2030. The General Assembly preapproved the new map so it would take effect in time to hold primaries Aug. 4 if the measure is approved.
The Supreme Court of Virginia is waiting until after the referendum’s outcome to decide whether to rule on several legal challenges mounted by Republicans.
Patrick Marley and Ence Morse contributed to this report.
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