Political Districts & Circuits in West Virginia

Offices whose elected officials represent citizens based on population or other factors are aligned into multiple districts. 

• Federal and state legislative districts are realigned every ten years during the year following the U. S. census.  Redistricting is done by the West Virginia Legislature, the new plan was adopted at a special session in 2001.  The new district detail is now available.
• Judicial circuits and family court circuits are aligned based on factors including both population and caseload, and those circuits are realigned whenever the Legislature finds it necessary.
• Magisterial districts are realigned every ten years, following the U. S. census.  County executive committee members for the political parties are elected from these districts, and this alignment also affects the election of county commission members and board of education members.

When statewide redistricting is done, the total population of the state is divided by the number of persons elected to a legislative body to determine the ideal population per seat.  The population represented by each legislative branch elected official usually must fall within a range of plus or minus 5% of that ideal number to meet the standards set by the courts in past years.  Redistricting is not done based on the number of registered voters or eligible voters, but is done on all citizens counted in the census.

Congressional Districts

Currently, West Virginia has three congressional districts, each district representing about 600,000 citizens.  Population shifts since 1990 made it necessary for the Legislature to move two counties out of the Second Congressional District, one to the First District and one to the Third District.  The West Virginia Constitution provides that the congressional districts should consist of whole counties whenever possible.

Click the map for details about congressional districts.

Senatorial Districts

Since the West Virginia Senate has thirty-four members, and each district must have two senators, the number of senatorial districts is fixed at seventeen, unless the number of members changes.  The districts currently range in geographical size from one county to parts of nine counties in order to achieve the right population distribution to assure equal representation.

Click the map for details about new senatorial districts.

Delegate Districts

The 100-member House of Delegates is currently divided into 58 districts, up two districts from the previous decade.  Unlike the State Senate, a district might have only one member or as many as seven.  Some districts include only a portion of one county, while others include parts of several counties.  To balance representation, each one percent of the state's total population of 1,808,344 in the 2000 census is represented by one member.  A district that has about four percent of the state's population, for example, would have four delegates.

Click the map for details about new delegate districts.

Judicial Circuits

Unlike districts in the legislative branch, judicial branch positions are not so strongly limited by equal representation requirements.  Therefore, the Legislature has developed judicial alignments which take into account the case loads of the courts as well as population and geographical area in order to fairly distribute court services.  Circuit judges, who have jurisdiction over general civil and criminal cases, are elected from 31 circuits, each consisting of one or more whole counties, and including from one to seven judges.  New family court circuits were created by the Legislature in 2001 to provide for the family courts required by the 2000 Constitution Amendment adopted by the voters, the Unified Family Court Amendment.  The thirty-five new elective positions will serve in twenty-six circuits. 

	Click the map for details about current judicial circuits.
	Click the map for details about new family court circuits.

Magisterial Districts

The minimum number of magisterial districts per county is three, and most of West Virginia's 55 counties have three magisterial districts.  These districts are subject to the equal representation requirements.  Detailed information about the boundaries of magisterial districts is available from the county clerk.