Republican Attempts to Rig Voting in Virginia Costs Taxpayers Millions
After last week’s United States Supreme Court decision that scrapped Republican-drawn state house districts, Governor McAuliffe asked Republicans in the state house to collaborate on non-partisan redistricting. Rejecting both the Governor and Virginia reporters, Republicans insisted to continue their mission to rig election maps, regardless of the cost. Unfortunately for them, we found out how much taxpayers are on the on hook for:
“A federal court has awarded $1.3 million to the attorneys who successfully sued to redraw Virginia's 3rd Congressional District, an amount assessed partially against Virginia taxpayers and partly against current and former Republican members of Congress.”
You read that right, the Republicans’ latest scheme to ‘fix’ house districts has backfired to the tune of $1.3 million. But that’s not the end of the tab that the GOP has expensed to the people of Virginia.
“Taxpayer money has been used to defend House of Delegates members involved in the case, as well as to defend the case in general. When the Daily Press cataloged costs for all three redistricting cases in the spring of 2016, taxpayer costs had reached nearly $3 million to pay outside attorneys brought in to defend the lines or to represent state officials, including those trying to avoid releasing emails and other documents sought in the case.”
While the McAuliffe Administration’s fight to expand democracy is changing lives across the Commonwealth, Republicans are fighting around the clock to rig the district lines to keep themselves in office and their power grab is costing Virginians millions.
###
