Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats' redistricting plan

Virginia's top court has thrown out a new electoral map that was designed to help Democrats win four Republican-held US House seats.

The ruling is a setback for the party's effort to reshape the state's congressional boundaries before the November midterm elections.

The court said Virginia's Democratic-led legislature failed to follow proper procedure when it placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorise mid-decade redistricting.

Voters narrowly approved the amendment on 21 April, but the court said the process had been invalid.

In its opinion, the court said the violation "irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void".

A county judge had already blocked the state from certifying the results a day after the referendum, saying the ballot language was "flagrantly misleading".

The decision matters because Democrats had hoped the map could deliver as many as four additional seats in the US House.

That would have helped offset Republican redistricting efforts elsewhere and could have affected the balance of power in the chamber.

The ruling also comes amid a wider national fight over congressional district lines.

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