The Left’s Obsession With Early Voting May Lose Them Seats In Virginia
Hearings on Tuesday’s special redistricting election in Virginia began Monday, with the fate of four additional Democratic congressional seats depending on whether the state’s 45-day early voting period constitutes a running election.
After the hearing, former Virginia Attorney General and head of the Election Transparency Initiative Ken Cuccinelli outlined current and potential future cases before the Virginia Supreme Court that challenge the state’s attempt to shift its congressional map in favor of Democrats as the midterm elections approach.
Cuccinelli said there were four constitutional challenges focused on how the amendment was passed and two statutory challenges alleging the vote should be invalidated. (RELATED: Texas Redistricting Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court)
Three of the issues raised in 2025 were debated on Monday. Other issues raised in 2026 are expected to be argued afterward, assuming the court does not side with the plaintiffs and invalidate the special election, thereby rendering the other arguments moot.
The 2025 argument, which Cuccinelli called stronger, hinges on the claim that early voting caused the General Assembly’s approval of the proposed amendment to overlap with the election cycle.
Article XII of the state constitution requires that a proposed amendment be adopted twice by the General Assembly, with an election to the House of Delegates in between. However, the amendment was first passed on October 31 – just days before Election Day and after many had already voted early. Cuccinelli said the General Assembly vote could be declared invalid because it occurred during and not before the election.
ETI press conference live https://t.co/nzyYMF8qgM
– Election Transparency Initiative (@ETI_now) April 27, 2026
“The General Assembly, controlled by Democrats, did this very quickly and rather by surprise,” Cuccinelli said. “Six weeks into the Virginia election, which lasted seven and a half weeks, and after a million people had already voted.”
The Democrat’s lawyer argued Monday that even if the ballots were cast before the General Assembly voted, the process remained constitutional because those ballots were not counted until Election Day.
“So your position requires us to interpret elections in such a way that literally every vote cast for any office whatsoever is cast before the election even begins,” Justice Wesley Russell asked Matthew Seligman, the Democrats’ lawyer.
“Yes, Your Honor,” Seligman replied.
Republicans argued that knowledge of the proposed amendment could have influenced how voters voted. Seligman, however, said voters assume that risk when they vote early.
A statutory challenge argued Monday that Title 30, Section 13, requires clerks to publish a proposed amendment more than 90 days before an election. The defendants argued that this did not happen because the amendment was introduced during the election cycle, Cuccinelli noted.
If these and other claims — including that the first passage was invalid because it occurred during a special session called for budgeting — are rejected, another round of early voting challenges could follow.
That includes what Cuccinelli described as another violation of Article XII, which requires an amendment to be submitted to voters 90 days after the General Assembly reconvenes to approve it.
Similar to the first objection, the argument is that there was no 90-day gap between the General Assembly’s second session on January 16 and the start of the early voting period, which began 45 days before the April 21 election, meaning voting began less than two months after the General Assembly voted.
Democrats have consistently pushed Virginians to vote early, even before the 90-day deadline has passed.
Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for Virginians for Fair Elections, bragged to Politico that the YES campaign resulted in “historic early voter turnout.”
Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger also encouraged early voting for the special election, sharing a photo of herself speaking in front of a banner asking Virginians to vote before Election Day in April.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones shared a photo of himself voting early on April 3, a few weeks before Election Day.
Cuccinelli said another argument could reach the state Supreme Court by reading the ballot language under the state’s plain English rule, calling it misleading in describing the amendment as a temporary measure to “restore fairness in future elections.”
We will begin our briefing on the Virginia Supreme Court hearing this morning at 10:30 a.m. at https://t.co/DRcGBnY5QG
Below, the ballot question, in all its glory pic.twitter.com/btQJmy2Bim
-Ken Cuccinelli II (@KenCuccinelli) April 27, 2026
The maps themselves have also been contested, since Article II requires that “each electoral district shall consist of one contiguous and compact territory.” Cuccinelli said the Virginia Supreme Court will not judge the constitutionality of the map unless all other points raised against the legitimacy of the vote are rejected.
The former attorney general said the court was moving faster than ever and he would be shocked if an opinion was not issued by the end of May. In the meantime, he said voters should expect Democrats to campaign as if the amendment would pass, while Republicans continue to campaign according to current districts.
The court did not issue a stay, meaning the amendment remains the status quo until a notice or stay is issued.
Cuccinelli said if the court rules in favor of the Republicans, it would result in a significant loss in Democratic spending, noting that the party has spent three times as much as the Republican Party. (RELATED: Inside the RNC’s Effort to Stop Virginia Redistricting — and Why It Still Hasn’t Succeeded)
Although Jones said in court that the amendment should pass because of the will of the people, neither spending nor election results were part of Monday’s arguments, Cuccinelli said.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to note that Cuccinelli said Democrats outspent Republicans by three to one, not two to one.
