Two state constitutional amendments are on every Virginia voter’s ballot along with candidates seeking office.

If approved, one amendment would change the way the state redraws political districts for Congress and the Virginia General Assembly and the other would provide an additional tax benefit for totally disabled veterans.

The least controversial and the easiest to understand is Amendment 2, the one involving veterans. Expected to pass overwhelmingly, that amendment would provide veterans rated 100 percent disabled an exemption from local personal property taxes for one vehicle.

Much more controversial and complex is Amendment 1, which proposes to overhaul the redistricting process that takes place every 10 years after the U.S. Census is completed. By order of the U.S. Supreme Court, the 2020 Census ended in early October, with the latest state numbers expected to be released in December.

Currently, the General Assembly’s majority party drafts the new maps for election districts for the 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 40-member state Senate and the 100-member House of Delegates.

If the amendment is defeated and that system remains, Democrats would be in charge of redistricting because legislators from that party hold majorities in both the House and Senate. The governor, who under current practice would sign any redistricting legislation into law, also is a Democrat.

If the amendment passes, the current system would be eliminated, and the initial task of drawing new election district maps would fall to a 16-member commission, although the ballot language does not spell out the nuances involved.

The commission would be composed of two groups. One group would include eight legislators, four from the state Senate and four from the House of Delegates, with each political party appointing four. The commission’s other group would include eight citizens, with a panel of five retired judges choosing four recommended by Democrats in the legislature and four recommended by Republicans in the legislature.

The proposal calls for the commission to offer draft plans to the General Assembly next year within 45 days of receiving the census data. The amendment would require the commission to create contiguous and compact districts that comply with the federal Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection provision and other laws.

The commission’s redistricting plan would go into effect for the 2021 elections if the General Assembly approves it. The governor would play no role.

However, the commission could deadlock if three citizens or three legislators veto the redistricting plan and no further agreement can be reached. Either the Senate or House also could kill the new maps if a majority could not be mustered in one chamber.

If either the commission or one of the General Assembly chambers twice fail to pass the redistricting plan, the state Supreme Court then would be required to draft redistricting maps – likely through employing a special master or expert. The commission and the legislature would no longer be involved.

The ballot language does not explain the complexity; it just asks voters if they want a commission to handle redistricting.

Advocates, such as Brian Cannon of Fair Maps VA, an arm of the advocacy group that has led the fight for nonpartisan redistricting, call the creation of a commission a big step toward the goal of removing partisan politics and racial gerrymandering from the process and reducing the majority party’s ability to gerrymander or create weirdly shaped districts in bid to keep themselves in power.

Research based on the experience of other states indicates that such commissions produce more competitive legislative races and fewer lawsuits challenging results than in cases where the legislature’s majority draws the maps.

The main support for the amendment is from Republicans, who lost control of the General Assembly in 2019 and also suffered stinging defeats in lawsuits that successfully overturned their 2010 congressional and state House redistricting plans for illegally packing Black people into a few districts.

Democrats are split, with the state party and the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP officially on record as opposing the amendment.

Opponents of the amendment such as Henrico Democratic Delegate Lamont Bagby, chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, describe the commission system for redistricting almost as partisan as the legislature and claim the proposal would ignore the interests of Black people and other minorities.

“It empowers partisan leaders and enshrines this power into the Constitution,” Delegate Bagby has said. He noted the amendment contains no explicit instructions about minority inclusion and argued that means “it does absolutely nothing to end gerrymandering based on race or party.”

The state NAACP also noted in announcing its opposition that there would be more Black voices involved in shaping new maps if the legislature keeps control. Currently, there are 23 African-Americans in the General Assembly who would have a say — and a vote — on a redistricting plan, whereas a 16-member redistricting commission may have only one of two Black representatives.

However, some Black leaders claim the amendment ensures protection of Black interests. Philip Thompson of Loudoun County, a lieutenant governor candidate and former president of the Loudoun County NAACP, highlighted that point in denouncing arguments of members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.

Mr. Cannon agrees, noting that both the federal Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection provision must be followed.

“For the first time in Virginia history, racial gerrymandering would be outlawed in the (state) Constitution,” Mr. Cannon said. “The party in power will gerrymander to keep that power,” he said. “This would be the first check ever, and that will produce better results.”