Colorado Redistricting: Supreme Court Rejects New House, Senate District Maps (UPDATE)

On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected the newly drawn House and Senate redistricting maps that were designed to make legislative races more competitive, saying that the new map was not "sufficiently attentive to county boundaries," 9News reports.

UPDATE:

On November 29th, The Colorado Reapportionment Commission approved new state House and Senate maps, which will be sent to the Colorado Supreme Court for approval before Dec. 6. According to the Denver Post, the Democratic-drawn maps were approved by a vote of 6-5.

EARLIER:

The Denver Post reports that the court's 4-2 vote sends the maps back to the Colorado Reapportionment Commission which must draw new maps and resubmit by Dec. 6.

Democrats currently control the Senate and Republcans control the House, the rejected maps would have made a third of state Legislature races competitive in 2012, CBS Denver reports.

Republicans, who were highly critical of the map, praised the decision, Fox31 reports. GOP Chairman Ryan Call said:

The State Supreme Court's decision today validates what Colorado Republicans have been arguing all along -- that the Reapportionment Commission must first look to keeping counties boundaries whole before looking to non-constitutional criteria in drawing district boundaries.

It wasn't all bad news for Colorado Democrats, The Denver Post reports that court did rule that "other nonconstitutional considerations, such as the competitiveness of a district, are not per se illegal or improper." And Colorado Democratic chairman Rick Palacio told the Post that the Democrats had concerns about the maps as well and remained confident that they can address the issues the court has with the maps.

Legislative boundaries are redrawn every 10 years to accurately reflect changes in population.

Photo via Flickr, yosoynuts

Comments

[berrycuda]

11:00 AM on 11/17/2011

GOOD!

The Dems "stack and pack" program is being stopped everywhere. As it should be, what they are trying to do is unconstitutional and un-American.

Stop trying to make solid republican communities part of solid Dem districts even if the districts are HUNDREDS of miles apart. They are NOT Dems and the Dems are trying to disinfranchise voters, thats just wrong.

This is no better than the Repubs trying to scare away voters with ID check (something I'm for, you should have to prove your a citizen of the district your voting in, thats just commen sense)

[Nana1]

05:56 PM on 11/16/2011

The right wing wins again. Having lived thru 3 redistricting sessions here in Colorado, I can tell you that nobody pays attention to the population and where it is located. What they pay attention to is voter registration and if the Republicans can remain unchallenged. The majority of the population is concentrated along the eastern side of the Front Range, ergo, counties have to be joined together in building a district. To do otherwise defeats the purpose of equal representation. And heaven knows, the GOP can't stand the thought of equal representation or free speech.

[Find the Truth]

05:55 PM on 11/16/2011

Who cares about county boundries....Rural and urban are the communities of interest not county boundries draw 100 years ago....

[luapmi2]

07:02 AM on 11/17/2011

Then Colorado should amend its constitution....

[Find the Truth]

12:35 PM on 11/17/2011

I agree....

[ShockedSHOCKED]

02:14 PM on 11/16/2011

Republicans here in North Carolina need to talk with Republicans in Colorado. Here they propose to divide PRECINCTS (!) to achieve their devious ends.

And as for redistricting every 10 years: that custom seems to apply everywhere except Texas. Remember back when Tom Delay illegally spread money around to take over the legislature there and then pulled strings for another redistricting aimed at eliminating several Democratic seats.

[mycotropic]

03:39 PM on 11/16/2011

In my precinct it was drawn to exclude the sitting representative. It carved out a big chunk of another D rep HD and gave it to her though so that both reps were facing completely new demographics. The problem with this whole process is that they started at the borders and drew districts IN to the population centers instead of the other way around.

[Telemachus]

11:25 AM on 11/16/2011

I'm not sure I understand why maintaining county boundaries is so important. County boundaries are pretty arbitrary to begin with.

[Find the Truth]

05:58 PM on 11/16/2011

Absolutely....and I said the same thing myself before I read your comment. We in Adams county have disticnt rural and urban areas....The needs of one hardly ever match up with the needs of the other. So where did the Justices get this logic from?

[luapmi2]

07:03 AM on 11/17/2011

try this: YOUR STATE CONSTITUTION

[BeautifulOnDaOutside]

06:45 PM on 11/16/2011

It's part of the constitution, and counties each have their own government and laws, so the people within them have common interests because of that.

[Find the Truth]

06:59 PM on 11/16/2011

So a rural area 40 miles east of where I live in suburbia has the same interests as my neighboorhood....I don't buy it...It is illogical, even the county seat is a little town with not much in common with our city. I think communities of interest are defined by real interests not shared concern about the silly county government...who by the way doesn't do a heck of a lot for the cities. The sheriff now wants to charge the cities for detention of those who broke city laws. Silly, I'd rather get rid of the counties if it could be managed.

[Nosybear]

11:20 AM on 11/16/2011

Crap! I was already celebrating Coffman's departure....

[mycotropic]

03:37 PM on 11/16/2011

Coffman is still gone gone gone; the CD redrawing is accepted by the courts already, this article discusses state house and senate.

Coffman now has to defend against the parts of Aurora that ALWAYS go for Perlmutter (as a part of CD7). Perlmutter potentially gets a harder fight but Coffman has to take on a MUCH more democratic population who detest his policies. The city of Aurora regularly goes 2/3 to 1/3 dem and the population is large in the areas now in CD6. Man I can't wait to pull the lever against Coffman.

[lensman3]

11:57 AM on 11/30/2011

I'll be right behind you pulling that lever to get rid of Coffman. I keep call Coffman's office and asking "where are the jobs"??? Still looking for something he has done.