Virginia voters will decide on Tuesday whether to adopt new congressional maps that could help Democrats win control of the House of Representatives and scuttle Donald Trump's effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve Republican control of Congress.
Polls show the referendum to redraw the maps has only a narrow lead in a state that Kamala Harris won two years ago. The issue appears to have engaged many voters, with nearly 1.37m ballots cast in early voting.
The special election is a key test for Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic governor who supports the new maps, which could turn a delegation currently composed of six Democrats and five Republicans into one where Democrats hold all but one seat.
Spanberger has said the change is necessary to counter Trump's effort to have red states use gerrymandering to preserve the GOP's majority in the House ahead of the November midterm elections, in which the party in power historically loses seats.
The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Texas's Republican-controlled legislature redrew that state's congressional maps in a bid to oust as many as five Democratic House lawmakers from their seats. Missouri and North Carolina also approved new district boundaries that could cost Democrats one seat in each state.
California voters retaliated by passing new maps that could flip five Republican-held seats, and the election in Virginia is now the second time that a Democratic gerrymander will be decided at the ballot box.