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As some of you may know I have been appointed by the Senate President to serve on the reapportionment commission. I wanted to share some information about the reapportionment process and how you can be involved.
Redistricting is the process for redrawing US Congressional lines. (That is in the Colorado Courts and will likely be heard in October).
Reapportionment is the process for redrawing Colorado legislative districts. This is in process right now through the Colorado Reapportionment Commission. This is a bipartisan commission with 5 Dems, 5 GOP, 1 Unaffiliated. The other Commissioners are: Arnold Salazar, former Rep. Rob Witwer, Prof. Bob Loevy, Dolores Atencio, Rep. Matt Jones, former Rep. Gail Berry, former Rep. Steve Tool, Mario Nicholais, former Mayor Wellington Webb, Mario Carrera (Chair).
Colorado has grown approximately 17% since the last U.S. Census, over 700,000 people. The number of House districts (65) and the number of Senate districts (35) stay the same but we need to reallocate population to achieve population equality (within 5% highest population to lowest population deviation).
The criteria we are directed to follow:
- Achieve equal population
- Comply with the Voting Rights Act to protect against dilution of minority voting rights
- Avoid breaking county lines, where possible (unless needed for population)
- Avoid breaking city lines, where possible (unless needed for population)
- Seek compact and contiguous districts
- Respect communities of interest
- Give due consideration for competitive districts or other factors that may improve representation
Reapportionment Website
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/CGA-ReDistrict/CBON/1251581558204
You can find agendas, schedule, testimony, data, maps, legal criteria, contact information, whether your district or county will need to shrink or grow, etc. on this website.
Reapportionment Email
reapp2011@state.co.us
Ways to Participate
- Testify, Attend Hearing(s)
- Send Input to Email Address Above
- Listen to Proceedings Online
What kind of information is helpful to us?
- your knowledge of local communities of interest (historical, cultural, transportation, economic etc)
- local history
- which communities should or should not be paired together and why
- any suggestions you have for how lines should be drawn or changed
Have a great weekend!
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