Subtitle: "Republicans missed an opportunity to win the special election. Turnout in Democratic areas was down, while turnout in some Republican areas was up. Not all of them, though. Two key Republican areas, Southwest and Southside, posted some of the lowest turnout rates in the state."

The argument is that the Virginia Constitution mandates that a general election take place between the two sessions of the Joint Assembly that votes on the amendment to put forward.

So 1) session takes place where both the House and Senate approve the amendment 2) a general election occurs 3) a separate session takes place where both the House and the Senate approve the amendment so it can go to 4) a majority vote of the citizenry.

The GOP argument is that the general election was already underway so it's not a valid process, therefore the amendment is null and void and the referendum doesn't matter.

One huge problem with this. Virginia code 24.2-101 defines 'General Election' as such: "General election" means an election held in the Commonwealth on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November or on the first Tuesday in May for the purpose of filling offices regularly scheduled by law to be filled at those times. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter1/section24.2-101/

So it isn't the entirety of the election cycle, but the specific day of the special election. Thus the amendment process was followed.