Public Comments

Hello Commission Members, I emphatically urge you to reject the partisan maps being pushed by Commissioners Barnett and Kottwitz and support maps drawn by nonpartisan staff. Thank you, -Michael Feran Centennial, CO

Dear Commissioners: I would like to see our Colorado redistricting map to be fair and non partisan. I do not believe the Kottwitz and Barnett suggestions to be non partisan and I hope you will disregard them. Thank you.

Please do not accept the partisan maps that Barnett and Kottwitz are trying to push through.

Members of the Colorado Independent Legislative Redistricting Commission and Commission Staff - Attached please find a memo laying out comparisons between CLLARO / CBLC Plan submitted on September 18, 2021 and the Kottwitz House Plan (Hp. 005) and Barnett Senate Plan (Sp. 005) including the impact of a given concentration of minority groups and the ability to elect their preferred candidate. This memo will lay out a number of deficiencies in the Kottwitz House Plan and Barnett Senate Plan respectively. The analysis in this memo will refer specifically to HD32, HD35, HD55, HD61, HD64, HD2 in the Kottwitz Plan and SD3, SD24, SD28 in the Barnett Plan. Many of those deficiencies are centered in a misplaced focus on reaching a specific percentage of Latinos or people of color more broadly without regard to whether those communities have sufficient voting power to elect their preferred candidate. When such errors are made, it can result in a district that is not an effective minority district, given the factors defined above. Maintaining effective minority districts is necessary to meet the constitutional requirements laid out in Amendment Z, which states: “No map may be approved by the Commission or given effect by the Supreme Court if it has been drawn for the purpose of or results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of that person’s race or membership in a language minority group, including diluting the impact of that racial or language minority group’s electoral influence. Additionally, both the Kottwitz and Barnett plans appear to skip constitutional requirements to maintain communities of interest and political jurisdictions in favor of increasing competitiveness. While CLLARO submitted plans that have a large number of competitive districts, we did so after meeting all previous constitutional criteria. The following examples provided appear to show arbitrary splits of political jurisdictions and communities of interest in order to achieve competitiveness. Please feel free to contact me via email with any questions. Sincerely, Alex Apodaca-Cobell

Good afternoon. Thank you for all of the work you have done thus far and will continue to do. I'm truly incredibly grateful. I will attempt to keep my input broad in nature and concise. The first point of importance to me and my area is to keep municipalities whole. I live in an area of rapid growth as in many areas in Colorado. My municipality is in two counties. This is a great challenge for the city government, the county governments, and constituents. The constitutional amendments created by Y&Z include attempting to keep counties and cities whole without clear language on which is the higher priority. I would say representing my area and others that are similar, the wholeness of a municipality is incredibly important to be represented at the state level by a single person. I also wholeheartedly echo the comments submitted by Mr. Steven Tool. His vast experience in redistricting combined with being an unaffiliated voter from my area, I think his thoughts on using footprints will be vital. I agree that if you start creating the maps in an area just as the SW corner of the state, by the time you reach Northern Colorado and/or the Eastern plains, this forces lines that are maybe not considered in the same manner in which you start. Finally, you will be including the VRA. I would like to make sure that Weld county is included in the evaluation of whether the VRA can be included here in addition to the other areas of the state it has been applied. The census data may show it cannot be, but I just wonder if the growth and change in demographics may provide for an area protected by the VRA there. Again, I appreciate your efforts and look forward to seeing your first map. Please be well. Very Best, Aislinn Kottwitz (submitted by email 6/18/2021)