Public Comments

I am opposed to adding Boulder County, Co. to the Third congressional district of Colorado. I am even more opposed to Mesa County being sawed out of the 3rd District to create a district that has to cross the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains and Continental Divide to hold congressional district meetings. From October to April that's just not possible unless one travels by helicopter or private jet. And how many can afford to do that? Ridiculous. If one looks at a map of Colorado's congressional districts, the 3rd district of Colorado comprises almost half the State. That's a lot of territory for one sole district to represent. If you look at some of the tiny little districts like the exclusive Denver area, it has less territory and is LOSING population because of the last three years of growing lawlessness there. In a series of cases starting in the mid-1960s, the Supreme Court decided that population disparity when redistricting voting areas violated the U.S. Constitution. It required roughly equal population for each legislative district. Since district boundaries have to be periodically readjusted it means accounting for new population information. Mesa County grew almost ten percent to 154, 210 people and Boulder County is now a whopping 326, 196 people. Now, add all the other counties in Western Colorado and DON'T FORGET THE UTES. The most recent Census data shows Grand Junction and Boulder INCREASED in population, so the only reason to tack Boulder on to the third district is to BE SURE THE NEWLY ASSIGNED 1 ADDITIONAL REPRESENTATIVE will be in Denver by weeding out the Boulder bunch. Not only that, it will result in a depletion of the population being represented in the 3rd District, and watering down the representation for both Boulder and Mesa Counties. What is very clear, and has not been addressed, is that the Ute Indians have been UNDER-represented, and the Biden administration recently absconded with their land and mineral rights because it saw how helpless the Western Slope is politically. Polis naturally kisses Biden's ring. But here's the sneaky part. A group of water poachers has already decided to funnel even MORE of the Colorado River from the Western Slope and if Boulder is attached to Grand Junction [still in a three year drought] it can build up its dream reservoir, turn Mesa County into the living desert, and claim to be representing the same people. And that's what is behind this more than giving a flip for the people who live in Mesa County. Shame, shame, shame.

Dear members of the Committee: Thank you for giving the public an opportunity to give input to redistricting. As a 16 year resident to Colorado, I know from experience that redistricting can have a profound effect on representation at the state and national level. It is imperative that like-minded communities are given representation that fits with their political, moral, and ethical values. The state of Colorado is a special place as the Rockies have become a natural buffer between rural and urban areas of the state. Recent happenings across the state from immunizations to voter integrity have revealed that there is a definite split in opinions on many fronts between several counties in Colorado - I recently learned about talks of trying to redraw the third district by redrawing districting lines to exclude Pueblo county, replacing it with Boulder, and or Breckenridge, and Vail counties. I do not have to point out the political leanings of said counties- and the dis-service this would be to each of the counties for obvious reasons. Respectfully hope that as an independent commission an honest and thoughtful discussion will be forth coming when considering the redistricting and the Peoples wishes to be represented by individuals that have their best interests in mind. Sincerely, Margaret J. Stolle

Dear Redistricting Commission, Your website states that districts must “Comply with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.” As a black voter, I am interested in ANY particular case in which that’s been an issue in the State of Colorado since the Civil Rights Era. I need you to answer that question, thanks. Your website also states that districts must: “Preserve whole communities of interest and whole political subdivisions, such as counties, cities, and towns.” Why, then, are you proposing changing the third district, which would diminish representation for Pueblo County? How does that benefit THE CONSTITUENTS? I need you to answer those questions, thanks. Finally, this committee should be aware that the “marginalized” groups you people use to further your agendas are very aware of how the goal post keeps getting moved down the field. Opportunists should stop trying to hide behind us and get out front and do your job; honorably represent the people of Colorado, for a change. Thanks. Karen Kennedy. GoldStar Military Widow Colorado Resident

Dear members of the Committee: Thank you for giving the opportunity to give input to redistricting. Colorado voters need representation that fits with their political, moral, and ethical values. The state of Colorado is a special place as the Rockies have become a natural buffer between rural and urban areas of the state. Recent happenings across the state from immunizations to voter integrity have revealed that there is a definite split in opinions on many fronts between several counties in Colorado - I recently learned about talks of trying to redraw the third district by redrawing districting lines to exclude Pueblo county, replacing it with Boulder, and or Breckenridge, and Vail counties. I do not have to point out the political leanings of said counties- and the dis-service this would be to each of the counties for obvious reasons. Respectfully hope that as an independent commission an honest and thoughtful discussion will be forth coming when considering the redistricting and the peoples wishes to be represented by individuals that have their best interests in mind. Sincerely, B K

So cheating at the ballot box wasn’t good enough now you’re going to try and do redistricting. That’s not gonna fly with us. You’ve awakened a sleeping giant and we do not want redistricting get this straight. We do not want redistricting.

Dear members of the Committee: Thank you for giving the public an opportunity to give input to redistricting. As a recent resident to Colorado I know from experience in Ca that redistricting can have a profound effect on representation at the state and national level. It is imperative that like minded communities are given representation that fits with their political, moral, and ethical values. The state of Colorado is a special place as the Rockies have become a natural buffer between rural and urban areas of the state. Recent happenings across the state from immunizations to voter integrity have revealed that there is a definite split in opinions on many fronts between several counties in Colorado - I recently learned about talks of trying to redraw the third district by redrawing districting lines to exclude Pueblo county, replacing it with Boulder, and or Breckenridge, and Vail counties. I do not have to point out the political leanings of said counties- and the dis-service this would be to each of the counties for obvious reasons. Respectfully hope that as an independent commission an honest and thoughtful discussion will be forth coming when considering the redistricting and the peoples wishes to be represented by individuals that have their best interests in mind. Sincerely Karen Seibold

The City of Lakewood should remain in one district. And it should remain associated with Wheat Ridge, Golden, Arvada, Edgewater, Mountain View and Arvada as we are connected and related by being in Jefferson County with similar interests and values.

Hello, I have worked diligently at creating sample districts at Daves Redistricting and I understand how incredibly hard it is to draw these districts. I have a few comments for both the State House and State Senate Districts. (1) Colorado is made up of culturally distinct areas. Although there are many different ways of breaking it down, I think that that two ways are best. (a) Colorado has at least 7 distinct regions: the Eastern Plains, the Front Range, Pikes Peak Region, San Luis Valley, South West Colorado, West Slope and Central Mountains. (b) we can more generally divide this as Urban, Suburban and Rural. (2) The vast majority of voters live in an area where you can see them from the top of Lookout Mountain. This heavy concentration of voters in the Front Range area makes Colorado similar to Washington State and Illinois. We must take care to not bake into the cake that that one region will have hegemonic power over the other 6 regions. (3) Care should be taken to avoid baconmanders. Some of the State House and State Senate Districts that currently exist needlessly package residents from urban, suburban and rural areas together without much logic. A good example from the past was HD 20 from 20 years ago. That district went down Colfax from Casa Bonita to Golden. A lot can be said for Colfax, but building a HD along the RTD route 16 doesn't represent a coherent community. It does create a baconmander. (4) As we are supposed to avoid taking registration into account when drawing these districts, any difference between average makeup of the districts should be accounted for in the normal sorting of voters. I think the best base community to use in the areas outside of the Front Range is the county level for drawing districts. Inside the Front Range, local municipalities should be the basic community. As things stand now, some cities that would make great natural districts are split. For example, Westminister is split needlessly as is some of the other Front Range cities. I live in Centennial and we are lucky to have basically one House District on the east side of town and one on the west side with a State Senate District that covers basically the entire town. Those are good districts representing our community. I feel bad for some residents just on the other side of Santa Fe who are in a baconmander that clumps them in with residents in rural Jefferson County, the unicorporated southwest suburbs and up into the east side of Lakewood. Basically, lets keep these districts compact and center them on cities in the Front Range. Avoid baconmanders. It is unfortunate that due to registration patterns that some compact districts that represent coherent communities will have registration splits that make them uncompetitive, but the state law requires that we ignore those registration issues.

This congressional map avoids county splits where possible, and it creates a new majority-minority seat in the Denver area. El Paso County gets its own congressional seat. The new district 8 is a Northwestern seat that takes in Fort Collins, Vail, and Aspen. Districts 2,6, and 7 are all seats in the Denver area surrounding the new majority-minority seat (district 1). District 3 shifts into a southern Colorado seat. District 4 includes all of Douglas County and most of the eastern slope.

It is very important that the Routt County state congressional district stays with Eagle County. The two counties are similar in geography, demographics, and values. If we were to be joined with other counties, our voice would likely be lost and our we would not be effectively represented in our state legislature. This is a very real fear as it is exactly what we are seeing with our US Congressional District. The current and past house representatives for District 3 not only do not come to our community to hear what we have to say, but they completely ignore phone calls, emails, and letters because they only want to represent individuals from their conservative communities they represent. We have completely lost our voice at the federal level - I hope that changes - please don't let that happen to Routt County at the state level too. Thank you, Lisel Petis