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NORFOLK, Va. — Sixty-three percent of Virginia voters support the commonwealth’s current once-a-decade redistricting process. But a narrow majority (51%) would support a proposed constitutional amendment that would change that method in response to redistricting in other states, according to a new poll.
The Wason Center at Christopher Newport University gauged voters’ opinion on several proposed constitutional amendments and other issues at the forefront of this year’s General Assembly session. The poll comes as Virginia Democrats are engaged in a battle to redraw the commonwealth’s 11 congressional districts in a bid to pick up seats ahead of this year’s mid-term election.
The poll also found a majority of voters support or strongly support two other constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot in November, including establishing a fundamental right to reproductive care like abortion and contraception (66%), and allowing felons who have completed their prison sentence to have their voting rights automatically restored upon release (64%). Felon re-enfranchisement had a sizable racial gap, with 61% of white Virginians indicating support compared to 80% of Black Virginians. Democrats are also more supportive, at 82% support/strongly support compared to 36% of Republicans and 68% of independents.
A proposed amendment for marriage equality was not included in the survey.
CNU’s State of the Commonwealth poll, released Wednesday, is based on 807 interviews of Virginia registered voters, including Republicans, Democrats and independents, conducted by phone between Jan. 13 and 20. The margin of error is +/-4.4%, according to CNU.
Redistricting is the process of redrawing the boundaries of districts from which public officials are elected. Democrats want to redraw the state’s districts this year to increase their party’s representation in Congress in a bid to offset gains Republicans have made by redistricting in other states.
Not surprisingly, support for redistricting shows a partisan divide. Republican’s strongly oppose (61%) the proposed redirecting change, while 63% of Democrats support the change.
But Democrats’ bid to redraw districts this year hit a snag Tuesday when a Virginia judge found that the process the General Assembly followed to advance the redistricting amendment was illegal and lawmakers failed to follow their own rules. On Wednesday, Democrats filed a notice of intent to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Recreational marijuana, data centers, right to work and other issues at the top of Virginia’s legislative session were also addressed in the poll.
A majority of Virginians support allowing the retail sale of recreational marijuana in the commonwealth (60%).
On data centers — facilities that are used to store computer servers and networking equipment — voters support a law that would prohibit locating them within a mile of a national park, state park or historically significant site (69%). The results showed that voters also support a law that would require newly constructed data centers to derive their energy from renewable or nuclear sources (63%) and one that would require localities to conduct a noise study if the site is close to homes or schools (81%).
The poll dug into right-to-work laws but produced contradictory results, revealing that voters need more information on the issue, said CNU’s research director Rebecca Bromley Trujillo in a briefing. Virginia’s right-to-work law, adopted in 1947 after a wave of nationwide strikes, says workers are not required to join unions or to pay union dues.
A majority of voters support keeping the law as-is (58% to 33%), while also narrowly supporting a full repeal (50% to 42%). Virginians show some support for two potential modifications to the law including allowing union and non-union members to work under separate contracts (44% to 43%), while a majority support no longer requiring unions to represent non-union members in work disputes (54% to 37%).
On Virginia gun laws, half of Virginian’s believe they should be more strict (50%), followed by 39% who think they should be kept as they are now, and 8% want them to be less strict.
