Tiny dot counties in Virginia?

[muon2]

The tiny dots are VA cities, not counties.

In VA cities are independent of any county. There are 40 independent cities in VA. When a city is chartered it maintains its own jurisdiction and records independent of any county it may have been a part of. This includes election records, so the cities have the same status in an election map as the VA counties.

[muon2]

From the Consitution of Virginia:

ARTICLE VII Local Government

Section 1. Definitions.

As used in this article (1) "county" means any existing county or any such unit hereafter created, (2) "city" means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on the first day of July, nineteen hundred seventy-one, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law, (3) "town" means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law, ...

Cities are distinguished from towns in that cities elect the same set of officers as counties and may keep their records. The dates of incorporation of Virginia cities varies quite a bit. The 2000 census lists VA cities at the same geographic level as counties.