Virginia’s redistricting referendum is not going as well as the Democrats evidently expected. The official date of the special election is April 21 but early voting began on March 6, and the number of ballots cast in heavily Republican areas of the state has been far higher than in their Democratic counterparts. The Old Dominion doesn’t register voters by party, but the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) publishes early vote totals by congressional district. Five of Virginia’s eleven U.S. House districts are currently held by Republicans and six districts are held by Democrats. Thus far, of the 676,502 Virginians who have voted, 55 percent cast their ballots in the five districts held by Republicans.
This does not, of course, mean that everyone voting in these districts is a Republican, but it does suggest that GOP voters are turning out in larger than expected numbers. The VPAP data also suggest that some Democrats may be apathetic about this issue. The weakest turnout has been in the 3rd Congressional District, represented by Democrat Bobby Scott, where 40,237 early votes have been cast. The largest turnout has occurred in the 1st Congressional District, represented by Republican Rob Wittman, where 93,540 votes have been cast. This clearly has Democrats seriously worried. They have spent tens of millions of dollars in order to saturate broadcast, cable, and social media with countless ads featuring erstwhile President Obama attempting to sell this transparent lie