"As result of the death of Emily Couric, a special election must be held to fill her seat in the Virginia Senate.

However, as the district lines have already been re-drawn to conform with the 2000 census, the election will be held in a newly configured 25th District, which includes parts of the state to the south and the west, but excludes parts of Madison, Orange and Greene counties.

In the past, Susan Clark Schaar, Clerk of the Virginia Senate, says, redistricting did not take effect until the next general election. And special elections were set within the old boundaries.

Under the new redistricting plan signed by the governor, however, the Senator elected to the 25th in a special election will represent individuals from Rockbridge, Bath and Alleghany counties plus Buena Vista and Covington.

At the same time, these individuals will continue to have their present Senators, Hanger and Trumbo. But no Senator will formally represent some thousands north and northeast of Albemarle until the next regularly scheduled election in 2003.

The person elected to fill the 25th District Senate seat would fill the remainder of the current term and would stand for reelection with all other 39 senators in 2003.

According to State Board of Elections spokesperson Rosanna Bencoach, this doubling of representation, on the one hand, and failure of designated representation, on the other hand, is the only possible result under the new law.

While this also happened in the special election following Randy Forbes resignation from the Virginia Senate to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives last June, the impact was not as great. There was less displacement because only two or three precincts were affected. And it did not leave thousands of people unrepresented.

"In practical reality, what will happen is [the new senator] will take up the slack [for those temporarily without representation]," says Bencoach. "They'll watch out for their district. ... These people may not get to vote for them next time, but they live near people who do ...."

Overlapping of old and new districts, on the other hand, may cause additional difficulties because of the dual representation.

When will the election be held?

Ms. Bencoach of the Board of Elections says that the most likely date for a special election is December 18th, since the voting machines used for the November 6th general election will be sealed for 30 days, and the Tuesdays following the 18th will be Christmas and New Year's Day." (Dave Sagarin, October 24, 2001)

"John Scott Leake III, executive director of the General Assembly's Joint Republican Caucus, said both parties must nominate candidates by Nov. 19. Leake said [Senate President Pro Tempore John H.] Chichester [R-Stafford] told him Wednesday that he was entering a writ setting Dec. 18 as the date for the special election. Chichester calls the date because the General Assembly technically was still in session when Couric died of pancreatic cancer on Oct. 18.

'It's an intense, compact period for an election,' Leake said. 'There's a whole lot of money spent in a short period of time'" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, October 25, 2001).