Virginia’s Pro-Gerrymander Dems Argued Election Is Single Day After Forcing 45-Day Vote
By: Breccan F. Thies
May 09, 2026
The Supreme Court needed to explain what the definition of an ‘election’ is, so that Democrats could understand.
Virginia Democrats suffered a major loss Friday after the commonwealth’s Supreme Court overturned its attempt at an extreme partisan gerrymander. But the case itself saw Democrats conveniently argue that the “election” is a single day for purposes of gerrymandering, but in all other cases, it is 45 days long.
In 2020, Democrats forced through changes to the way Virginia conducts elections, turning the normal “Election Day” into a 45-day voting extravaganza. Because they instituted that 45-day voting period and then tried to sneak the referendum onto the ballot after more than a million Virginians had already cast ballots 42 days into the 2025 election, Democrats were forced to defend the referendum by claiming that the “election” is only one day.
“Before evaluating the exegesis of the term ‘election’ by legal scholars and courts, it is worth observing that the Commonwealth’s view would be unrecognizable to the average citizen,” the Supreme Court’s majority opinion said.
“Imagine one of the over one million Virginians who had voted in person before Election Day in 2025 walking into a polling place,” it continued, pointing out the absurdity in the Democrats’ position. “The voter says to the officer of election, ‘I am here to vote in the election.’ The officer of election responds, ‘we are not conducting an election here.’ ‘But that’s why I am here,’ the voter replies. ‘Maybe so, but let me explain,’ the officer of election insists, ‘you can vote in the election, but we are not conducting an election today. Elections are only conducted on Election Day.’”
“Legal scholars and courts would have the same bewildered reaction as the hypothetical average citizen,” the court said. “The definition of ‘election’ has always broadly denoted the ‘act of choosing.’”
In 2025, Democrats waited until the 42nd day of early voting to ram through the proposed referendum, which would have disenfranchised nearly half of Virginia’s voters. In Virginia, the constitutional process for a referendum requires that two separate legislative sessions pass the referendum, with an intervening election allowing voters to have an “indirect” say in the referendum. If the subsequent legislative session passes it, then it goes to a “direct” vote.
https://thefederalist.com/2026/05/09/virginias-pro-gerrymander-dems-argued-election-is-single-day-after-forcing-45-day-vote/
