Virginia Court Appoints Expert To Help Redistrict State

WMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A federal court in Richmond has appointed an expert from the University of California to help redraw Virginia’s Congressional boundaries.

Bernard Grofman is an economics and political science professor at the University of California, Irvine.

The federal court ruled that Virginia legislators illegally packed black voters into one district in 2012. This was done in order to make adjacent districts safer for Republican incumbents.

The court had originally ordered Virginia to go back to the drawing board, draw new maps and redistrict by a Sept. 1 deadline. The Virginia General Assembly missed the deadline, forcing the court to redistrict the state itself.