When Randi Buerlein arrived to vote early in Virginia’s redistricting election, she said she didn’t like what she saw. “I’m looking at this booth, and it has a big picture of our governor saying, ‘Don’t be fooled,'” Buerlein said at her polling place in Hanover County, talking about Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger. “She’s on TV every day saying, ‘Vote yes.’ But they’re making it look like she’s saying, ‘Vote no.'”
Virginia is in the midst of a contentious vote on whether to redraw the state’s congressional voting map, a proposal that would give Democrats an edge in all but one of the state’s 11 seats and could result in Democrats gaining four U.S. House seats. Democrats won in a landslide in the 2025 gubernatorial election, but Virginia remains fairly purple, and the referendum appears competitive even as the pro-redistricting side has massively outspent opponents.
Voters say campaigns have muddied the waters on the issue, from contradictory direct mail and newspaper-like publications to a leading ballot question and confusing committee names. Virginians for Fair Elections is the group encouraging people to vote yes; Virginians for Fair Maps is the group urging a no vote. That similarity has added to voter confusion.
Advertising has been inconsistent and recycled. Former President Barack Obama appeared in ads encouraging a yes vote this year, while an anti-redistricting spot from Virginians for Fair Maps used a 2017 video of Obama speaking against gerrymandering. The no campaign’s Justice for Democracy PAC mailed material showing images of the Ku Klux Klan beside the text “They want to silence your voice.” In response, the campaign manager for Virginians for Fair Maps said any confusion “was created by defying court orders, misleading ballot language and the hypocrisy of politicians,” and that the group’s ad “simply serves to educate voters.”
Gov. Spanberger, who expressed in 2019 that “gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy,” is supporting mid-decade redistricting this year to give Democrats an advantage. National figures and imagery have also been pressed into the fight: a billboard in Page County paid for by the Democratic committee used an image of former President Donald Trump and read, “President Trump says, ‘Take over the voting,’ Vote yes on redistricting April 21.”
Political communications experts warn that the cacophony of messages could depress turnout. J. Andrew Kuypers, a communications consultant and professor at Virginia Tech, said the tactics create decision fatigue that tends to favor the side with superior resources and turnout infrastructure. Early voting, however, is not far behind last year’s statewide totals when Spanberger was on the ballot, according to figures from the Virginia Public Access Project.
Dark money has been a major factor in funding both sides, making it difficult for voters to know who is bankrolling the campaigns. Contributions from 501(c)(4) organizations that do not disclose donors make up the bulk of spending. The Justice for Democracy PAC received just shy of $10 million from Per Aspera Policy Incorporated, a 501(c)(4) whose spending surged during the redistricting campaign. Virginians for Fair Elections, the committee backing the yes vote, has received over $64 million in contributions, mostly from non-disclosing groups; two major donors include The Fairness Project and House Majority Forward, a nonprofit linked to U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Virginians for Fair Maps, the main no committee, has received $19 million across six donations from its own 501(c)(4) also named Virginians for Fair Maps.
Mailers that look like newspapers have further complicated the information environment. Free election-related publications from the Virginia Independent — part of a nationwide media operation and a project of the 501(c)(4) American Independent Media — have included recipes, health articles and favorable coverage of the pro-redistricting campaign. Conservative outlets called the mailers “campaign mailers masquerading as ‘newspapers.'” The Virginia Independent’s editor-in-chief, Joe Conason, said the outlet has published content online since 2021, that stories are fact-checked and vetted by counsel to avoid violating 501(c)(3) rules, and that the publication aims to inform Virginians. A disclosure on the organization’s website lists board members with ties to left-leaning groups.
The ballot language itself has been criticized as leading and confusing. The referendum question reads: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”
“Promising to ‘restore fairness’ is not neutral framing,” said Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore. Voters expressed similar concerns. “I know what I’m voting for, but it’s misleading on that question,” said Casey Czajkowski, a voter in Goochland County. “This is going to lead people to vote yes, 100%, just by reading the question.”
With high spending, opaque funding sources and mixed messaging from both sides, many Virginians say they still aren’t sure what a yes or no vote will do — and that uncertainty is shaping how they approach the ballot.