STORY: "A rigged election took place last night in the great commonwealth of Virginia," or so said U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday (April 22).
He took to social media after Virginia voters approved a redistricting referendum on Tuesday (April 21), a decision that could flip up to four Republican-held seats in the House of Representatives.
Trump, without proof, blamed mail-in ballots for the outcome of the vote.
But Democrats welcomed the move, which increases their chances of winning control of the chamber in November.
A Virginia court, however, blocked the state from enacting the new districts, saying lawmakers had not followed rules for the redrawing.
That comes after the Republican National Committee sued to block the referendum, and will probably mean a final decision by the Supreme Court.
It's all just the latest in a tit-for-tat battle by the parties over redistricting in various states.
George Mason University political expert Jeremy Mayer says it's a dangerous road to travel:
"So, the legislature of a given state draws the lines for each congressional district. / And in other states, gerrymandering has been very common, i.e., drawing lines with political intent. And I once explained this to members of the British Parliament and one of them said, well, that's not the voters choosing their representative, that's the representatives choosing their voters. And that's what gerrymandering ends up doing."
The redistricting arms race began last July, when Republicans in Texas heeded Trump's call to change the state's congressional map in hopes of flipping five Democratic-held seats.
California responded with its own move to flip seats in favor of Democrats, and other states have followed suit.
Here's Mayer again:
"So, the Democrats are saying gerrymandering is bad, but letting Trump win through gerrymander is worse."
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Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called a special session next week to consider redrawing that state's map.
