On January 20, the Virginia legislature passed HB 251, which draws new boundaries for U.S. House districts. However, the bill cannot go into effect until the Governor signs it, and until the U.S. Justice Department approves it, which could take months.

Petitioning in Virginia cannot proceed for President, or U.S. Senator, until the U.S. House districts are known. This is because statewide petitions, both for the primary and the general election, have a distribution requirement, and must carry the signatures of 400 voters in each U.S. House district. Also, general election presidential petitions must include the name of the candidates for elector, and one elector must live in each district.

HB 736 has been introduced, to move the Virginia non-presidential primary from June 12 to August 21, in response to the fear that district boundaries won’t be known for a while. Also, HB 1151 has been introduced, to provide that U.S. Senate petitions can circulate using the old districts. However, neither of these bills offers any relief for minor party and independent presidential candidates. Although the law says presidential petitions can start to circulate on January 1, in reality, they can’t start to circulate yet. It is surprising that the legislator who introduced HB 1151 didn’t include presidential petitions in his bill. See this story about the two bills.