Public Comments

To Whom It May Concern: The revised map is a great disappointment to me. As a resident of rural Routt County, I can state unequivocally that moving us into District 2 and expanding it East across the mountains to include Boulder is non-sensical. Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield, and Routt are primarily rural and will be completely disenfranchised on the national level by the big cities we have virtually nothing in common with. In the standard speech and thought of every Coloradan is the idea of the Western Slope and the Front Range, yet two districts are here forced to cross these naturally occurring divides and even ignore the specific groups of interest by combining completely disparate interests. I would respectfully request you consider keeping the Western Slope as a whole in one district where the more rural and ranching based counties can keep their representation. Move the Western counties from District 2 into District 3. Take the Eastern counties from District 3 and add them to District 4. Then District 2 start from Boulder and Laramie counties and expand into some of the Northwestern section of what is currently District 4. This would be far more in line with the natural divisions all Coloradans know instinctively and help preserve communities of interest that exist than the currently proposed map. Please, don’t further disenfranchise rural voters and pit them against metropolises. Thank you for your consideration, David Wolfson

Greetings Colorado Redistricting Commissioners: Thank you for your work on this complicated project of Redistricting the state of Colorado. I have attended some and can only imagine the meetings, public comment gatherings, calculations and staff management required to address this project. Your personal investment of time and energy is much appreciated. The Congressional “First Staff Map” dated 9/3 is interesting but disappointing. I understand your focus on population numbers but do not accept the carving out of Larimer County. I feel the movement of county seats of local government out of their home county location is counter-productive. Fort Collins is now and has been for historical time <138 years> the Larimer County seat; the center for Larimer County business, policy development, regulation and decision making. The social, health, atmospheric conditions, regulations, governing policy and economic differences between Fort Collins and the general populations of Weld County can not be denied. How could one U.S. Congress person representing the currently proposed District #4 “First Staff Map” effectively address and balance the conflicting goals, issues, concerns and needs of District #4 containing the combined Fort Collins and Weld County citizens as the map is now drawn? Why was the city of Greeley, Weld County seat, moved to District #8 and Fort Collins, Larimer County seat, moved into the Weld County District #4? Both have substantial populations that would contribute to your goal of equal district populations. What are the probable impacts on citizens’ needs and county economics from conflicting interests and concerns? This Colorado Redistricting Commission project can not just be servile to population numbers. The population numbers are a count of PEOPLE who have chosen to live and invest their lives, their energies and assets in a PLACE. It would be a serious mistake to reinvent that “place”. Thank you for your attention; I look forward to seeing your refined “map editions” in the coming days. Dale Karlin Zip Code 80526

I live in Fort Collins. Fort Collins should not be redistricted to become part of Weld County because we have different priorities and needs in our community. I am concerned that the redistricting proposal would make Fort Collins have a diminished voice on issues that we care about here, including clean air, wildfire prevention, and ozone attainment. The ozone pollution emitted by industries in Weld County negatively impacts our community, especially seniors and those with respiratory conditions. Fort Collins suffers the consequences of Weld's polluting industries, especially because of Weld's non-compliance of EPA limits on ozone. We do not want to promote those extractive industries. Fort Collins does not want to be represented as though we had the same needs, priorities, and identity as Weld County.

The map originally published by the commission is weird and horrible. Why would they totally ignore all the rules? It is not concise, it does not even attempt to preserve community norms. I have seen much better truly independent and honest maps by outside organizations, what is going on with the commission?

I am a full time registered voter in Blue River, Colorado. The only redistributing map that works is the first plan. I base my opinion on the physical landscape that defines the state, both physically and philosophically. To be dominated by the front range is detrimental to the culture of the mountain counties. The third plan is completely unacceptable, splitting Summit County community and marginalizes both Blue River and Montezuma communities. We are a vital part of Sumnit County and are vehement all opposed to the disenfranchising of two important towns in Summit County, all for the sake of the Front Range numbers game. We spent 20 years in the Washington, DC area - we know how government works at local, state, and federal level. Every citizen counts as does every community. Approve Plan 1.

The most recent proposed congressional map is a step backwards in developing a fair and representative map. Dividing Summit County does a great disservice to the residents of our county by assigning a portion of our residents into an area with little to no relationship to their areas of concern and need. Slicing Blue River off from the rest of the county and assigning us to a front range district is not in the best interest of our residents or our county. Return to plan one.

I am a full time registered voter in Blue River, Colorado. The only redistributing map that works is the first plan. I base my opinion on the physical landscape that defines the state, both physically and philosophically. To be dominated by the front range is detrimental to the culture of the mountain counties. The third plan is completely unacceptable, splitting Summit County community and marginalizes both Blue River and Montezuma communities. We are a vital part of Sumnit County and are vehement all opposed to the disenfranchising of two important towns in Summit County, all for the sake of the Front Range numbers game. We spent 20 years in the Washington, DC area - we know how government works at local, state, and federal level. Every citizen counts as does every community. Approve Plan 1.

I am a partner in a multi-generation fruit-growing business in Western Colorado. My community of interest (that is critical to any and all of us that eat to live) is agriculture. The most recent proposed new Congressional map strips rural agricultural interests of critical representation. To think that Rangley, Craig, Rifle, Glenwood, and Meeker remotely should exist within the same community of interest as urban Boulder County is an indefensible proposition in my opinion. The same holds true to consider that a "Southern district" appropriately captures a cohesive community of interest. With water and energy being key factors, it would be much more appropriate to consider rural and West Slope interests to more consistently qualify as "community of interest." Rural Colorado in fact, does define a legitimate "community of interest" and I would very much appreciate a reversion back to the originally proposed redistricting map. Thank you for your consideration of my concerns.

I have lived in Montrose, Colorado for 10 years and I feel like I know the area and the issues that unite us well. Farming, ranching and small businesses are the backbone of our community and all of the counties around us. Water is naturally an important resource for us as we are so dependent on farming and ranching. The redistricting map breaks up our watershed and that makes it difficult for our needs as a community to be properly represented. The Rocky Mountains create a natural division between the western slope and eastern slope of Colorado. The Western Slope has unique resources and industries that are not present on the eastern slope. I would object to any redistricting map that ignores this natural boundary and joins a western community with an eastern one. During the last election every western community voted against wolves being introduced in OUR communities. Our voices were ignored and overshadowed by big-city communities on the eastern slope. This was frustrating to almost every voter on the western slope. We are tired of not having our needs heard by the big-city communities on the eastern slope. If a redistricting map blurs the lines of cities and rural communities to further drown out our voices we will be very upset. I ask you to do the right thing and keep like-minded communities together in the districting maps. Thank you.

I understand that the commission has a difficult job to do. However, I think that connecting the city of Fort Collins to areas of the state that have little similarity, geographically, in terms of business interests or in terms of local culture is a form of dilution of the our city's potential to vote for a representative that truly serves our needs. Eric James