Colorado Supreme Court Throws Out Democrats’ Redistricting Ballot Measures

Colorado’s Supreme Court on Monday dealt a blow to Democrats’ efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps before the next U.S. Census. In order to draw new maps, Colorado Democrats needed to get three ballot initiatives passed. One would have temporarily overridden the state’s independent redistricting process, another would have allowed the state to use the new maps for the 2028 and 2030 elections, and a third would have implemented the new maps. Democrats hoped that, if approved, their party would have an advantage in seven out of the state’s eight congressional districts. Currently, the state’s House delegation is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. On Monday, the state’s Supreme Court issued a pair of opinions blocking all three of the initiatives, saying they violated a state law that stipulates that ballot initiatives must address a single issue.Democrats insisted that their initiatives complied with the single-issue requirement, as they did not put all of the changes into one proposal. However, the high court noted that each initiative had a disclaimer that told voters they would only take effect if the other measures were also approved. “To allow initiative proponents to proceed with interlocking measures like those at issue here would allow proponents to achieve indirectly what they could not achieve directly and would endorse an end run around the single subject requirement,” wrote Justice Richard Gabriel in one of the opinions.“Changing the constitutionally mandated frequency of redistricting — however temporary the change — is not merely a mechanism to administer the new congressional district map. Instead, it represents a seismic shift to Colorado’s longstanding redistricting process enshrined in the state constitution,” wrote the chief justice, Monica Marquez, who penned the other opinion. All of the judges on Colorado’s Supreme Court were appointed by Democratic governors. The decisions are the most recent setbacks for Democrats trying to counteract expected Republicans gains in the next three election cycles before the decennial census changes population counts in the nation’s 435 congressional districts. Last year, President Trump urged Republicans to launch mid-decade redistricting efforts, hoping to boost the number of Republican seats in the House. Several GOP-led states succeeded in changing the maps, though others declined to move forward.Democratic lawmakers have tried to respond by redrawing maps ahead of the 2028 and 2030 elections. However, those plans have struggled to gain traction. In May, Virginia’s Supreme Court overturned a ballot measure that was expected to give Democrats an advantage in four House seats that likely would have created a fully blue Virginia delegation in Congress.

Colorado Supreme Court Throws Out Democrats’ Redistricting Ballot Measures

Colorado Supreme Court Throws Out Democrats’ Redistricting Ballot Measures

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