The U.S. Constitution, the Virginia Constitution, and the Code of Virginia require state and local governing bodies to adjust their electoral district boundaries every ten years to reflect population shifts—and conform to the Constitutional principle of “One Person- One Vote.”  This “redistricting” process occurs every ten years and is based on Census data gathered by the federal government during its decennial count of the total U.S. population. The most recent Census was in 2020. 

Following action by the Virginia General Assembly, on November 3, 2020, Virginia residents voted to amend the state’s Constitution to authorize the establishment of the Virginia Redistricting Commission. The Commission was established for developing federal and state legislative district boundaries. Virginia has 11 Congressional Districts, 40 State Senate districts, and 100 House of Delegate districts.

Local governing bodies, like the Alexandria City Council, have the legal responsibility for redrawing local legislative district boundaries. Alexandria elects its City Council at large, so the City’s only local districts are for the School Board—Districts “A,” “B” and “C.”

The responsibility of drawing maps for congressional and state legislative districts passed to the Supreme Court of Virginia (SCV), and the SCV completed redistricting in December 2021. View the final maps approved by the SCV.

The City of Alexandria invited the public to provide input on an Alexandria City School Board voting redistricting proposal, which was considered by the Alexandria City Council on March 8. At a public hearing on March 12, City Council adopted an ordinance to: (1) establish the F.T. Day School as a polling place in lie of the Hermitage Senior Living Facility and rename the Hermitage Precinct the F.T. Day School Precinct; (2) shift the AlexRenew Precinct from Election District A into Election District B; and (3) amend the City Code to reflect the names of the current voting precincts.(ORD. NO. 5420)

Voting Precincts must be wholly contained within a single congressional district, Senate district, House of Delegates district, and School Board District. The boundaries of four precincts are impacted by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s new House of Delegates districts. They are the Naomi L. Brooks, Blessed Sacrament Church, Chinquapin Center and George Washington Masonic Temple precincts. A public hearing, second reading and City Council’s final passage of an ordinance to correct these “split” precincts will take place on February 12, 2022. 

• U.S. Census Bureau: The U.S. Census Bureau site includes Redistricting Data for every state.
• Virginia Redistricting Commission: The Virginia Division of Legislative Services redistricting homepage includes a very useful Guide to Local Redistricting for 2011, Redistricting Fact Sheets, and House and Senate Public Hearing information.