Virginians across the Commonwealth will head to the polls Tuesday to decide whether the state will redraw its congressional maps.
10 News Community Journalist Jason Freund will be live at a polling center Tuesday morning with everything you need to know for the big day. As a reminder, polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
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Already, more than a million people have turned out to make their voices heard.
10 News spoke with Trish Jones, general registrar for the city of Lynchburg. She said Lynchburg has already seen thousands of voters cast their ballots, but regardless of political affiliation, everyone needs to come out and vote.
“It’s a right that we have as citizens in this country and everybody, regardless of your political preferences or your choices, everybody needs to exercise that right and come out and cast their ballot,” Jones said.
Voters have their own reasons for heading to the polls.
“This is important. Every election is important, but it’s important that we take our congressional maps and make them a lot more competitive so that more people’s voices are heard,” said Roanoke City Council candidate Raekwon Moore.
One voter, Mary Ann Walker, said: “Women gave their lives for women to be able to vote. And I think that it’s deeply, deeply important, and we need to remember that and every single woman, young, old, in between, needs to remember what was sacrificed for us to have this right.”
Another voter, John Makay, said: “We redistrict every 10 years. It’s a matter of desperation. I think, for the Democrats, of which I am one. But it really isn’t, I feel that we have a problem with democracy at this point.”
So, when all the votes are tallied and the results are announced, what then? A “yes” vote means that Democrats have the potential to pick up 10 of Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, a pickup of four seats.
A “no” vote means that redistricting wouldn’t happen, and the districts would stay the same as they were.