A conservative-backed proposal that would create a new commission to redraw the boundaries of Colorado’s congressional districts will appear on November’s ballot, the Secretary of State’s Office announced Monday.
The measure, submitted by Advance Colorado, a conservative political nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors, would require that any redistricting done must be approved by the commission and adopted by the Colorado Supreme Court. It also aims to prevent any gerrymandering, or drawing districts to favor a political party. It would bar any plan from being adopted that would divide communities of interest or favor one political party.
It will be the only redistricting question voters will be asked on the Nov. 3 ballot. A trio of ballot redistricting measures that aimed to give Democrats an edge in winning congressional seats were thrown out by the Colorado Supreme Court in June for violating a requirement in the state constitution that ballot measures deal only with a single subject.
Those proposals, funded by a group linked to U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, would have temporarily paused the state’s independent redistricting process. They would have created new maps for the elections in 2028 and 2030. Democrats would have been favored to win seven of the state’s eight congressional districts, up from the four they currently hold.
Colorado’s current congressional map was drawn by an independent commission in 2021. Voters handed congressional and state legislative redistricting power to the commission in 2018 by passing a pair of ballot measures amending the state constitution.
The measure comes amid a nationwide battle over redistricting.
Because Colorado’s redistricting process is laid out in the state constitution, only a constitutional amendment can change it. A change in the state constitution can only happen with voter approval.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated.