This is another integrity test for your woke friends who claim that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.
Tomorrow, Virginians (like me) will go to polling places to decide whether to vote for a “proposed constitutional amendment.” Note that the proposed amendment isn’t included on the ballot. This is because Democrats, who dominate the state government cheat. There is no other way to explain this.
Constitutional amendments, which must be approved by Virginia voters, have to be on the ballot with a full explanation of the amendment available to the public at least 90 days before the election. Virginia Code 30-19.9 provides,
“The explanation shall contain the ballot question, the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment, and a statement of not more than 500 words on the proposed amendment. The explanation shall be presented in plain English, shall be limited to a neutral explanation, which may include a brief statement on the effect of a “yes” and “no” vote on the question but shall not include arguments submitted by either proponents or opponents of the proposal.”
How has it been “made available”? I don’t know: I hadn’t seen it, and I’m fairly informed on such matters. Maybe it was in something I thought was junk mail. Maybe Democrats think posting something on a website nobody is likely to visit is sufficient advance notice. The alleged required explanation of the current proposed amendment is here. In addition to the deceitful and misleading language on the ballot above, we see:
Ethics Alarms 
I think we are witnessing the hidden undercurrent agenda of the political left’s soft coup coming into the light of day. The left’s lust for ultimate power is going to rip the shit out of the nation.
I am really disturbed by the number of people who claim that Gov. Spanberger campaigned as a moderate Democrat and somehow morphed into a left-wing extremist. What is a ‘moderate’ Democrat these days? When RFK Jr. is considered a right-wing extremists, where does that put those to the left of him? The fact that so many people you know support everything she had done reveals the truth. Spanberger IS a moderate Democrat. These policies are the policies of mainstream Democrats today and are at least acceptable to the majority of Democrats. That is the opposite of extreme. If she were truly extreme, the people you are discussing would be disturbed by her actions.
There are a lot of conservatives concerned by President Trump’s actions on Iran, so it isn’t like people blindly agree with everything their elected representatives say or do. Lots of people in my state are upset with Sen Lankford and feel he is an embarrassment after his begging for mercy after Jan 6 and siding with Democrats on lots of bills that almost all conservatives oppose. So, Lankford is more of an extremist Republican than Spanberger is an extremist Democrat.
Jack, do you know much about Nick Freitas, who was a Green Beret who served some time in the Virginian legislature? I had some of his YouTube videos show at one point, and I started listening to him (mainly because he has a snarky way of rebutting liberal talking points). He’s been chronicling the Spanberger administration and the slew of left-favoring bills progressing through the state legislature. It is frightening how far the Left is pushing with their agenda.
What also worries me is that liberals have a very good track record of sneaking these initiatives through on special elections, midterm ballots, and whatnot. The amendment to the Ohio constitution to enshrine abortion as law succeeded in part because the conservatives didn’t show up to vote, and in part because the liberals did. I fear this will happen in Virginia with this redistricting plan.
Does it seem like there is a basis to challenge this ballot on procedural grounds?
Yes, but as usual Republicans were asleep at the switch. I don’t know if the election can be challenged after the fact, but the ballot is undeniably misleading.
Jack, my understanding is that the Republicans have been fighting this since it was first announced. If I recall correctly the court challenge caused the Democrat legislature to change the date the special election to avoid violating their constitution. No one was asleep at the switch and I have been watching this from MD since day 1. WMAL’ s Larry O Connor and Vince Cologneise have been talking about this for months. What should be screamed from the rooftops is that outside billionaires are funding the massive propaganda campaign.
It can’t be legal to misstate what a ballot initiative does on the ballot, or to characterize disenfranchisement as “fair.” If the GOP is fighting this, it’s doing a lousy job.
Diabolically clever to bake that “October 31, 2030” in there. This offer is only good for this midterm, and next election – and expires 3 days before the next midterm. Can’t risk this power falling into Republican’s hands, after all.
I’m a volunteer election officer in Alexandria. The full text of the amendment and an explanation for voters are (1) on a large poster on the wall of the polling place and (2) in a “take one” style pamphlet at the information desk in the polling place. I had to vote absentee because I’m not assigned to my home precinct and can confirm Jack’s experience that it was not in the envelope with the absentee ballot. But I don’t know if it was required to be.
I just got back from voting, and I can confirm that:1) As Albert Turnbull says above, the full text and explanation was printed on a sheet that was posted in the area where one goes to actually do the coloring-in-of-the-ovals process. There may also have been pamphlets that one could take but I didn’t specifically look for them.2) The text on the ballot itself was indeed the same VERY NON-NEUTRAL text that is shown on the pic that heads this article.
I’m frankly disgusted by this whole scheme, and I do mean “scheme.” They would rather change the State Constitution for this ridiculous measure than try to win on the issues.
I’m fully expecting, if this measure doesn’t pass, that we’ll see these same obviously-gerrymandered district maps reappear exactly as they are in 2030.
–Dwayne
By the way, Harris carried Virginia in 2024 by about the same margin as Clinton in 2016.
Looking just now at Real Clear Politics, this amendment is narrowly losing 50.6 to 49.4 with 81% of the vote counted.
Oops, now the yes’s are up 7k with 85% counted. Perhaps a nailbiter.