Public Comments

As a resident of Loveland Colorado I am curious why you would take us out of our current district. It makes no sense and certainly is not appealing to the majority of Loveland residents. It puts us in a position to fight for a democratic representative against what would appear to be a far right extremist district. We do not desire this type of representation and strongly object to this change.

The Commissions most recent map for Fort Collins shows HD52 and HD53 divided east and west along College Ave (US 287). This division perpetuates the not-competitiveness of earlier years. These two districts should be divided north and south to create more competitive districts. A north-south division also recognizes the north side of Fort Collins and the south side are distinctly different communities of interest. The CSU community of singles and the north side housing demographic has many more one and two person household with fewer K-12 students than does the south side of town. The district divisions should acknowledge these differences. Also, competitiveness is improved with a north-south division. The last time a Republican won in HD53 configured with a generally east-west division was in 1986. This new map does nothing to increase competitiveness. I suggest a division generally along Prospect Ave or Drake Rd (depending on the numbers) recognizes the differing communities of interest and creates two districts with increased competitiveness.

Dear Redistricting Commission Members, After reviewing the second staff plan for the Colorado House Districts, I was disappointed to see this plan has moved even further from the mark than the first staff plan. During my testimony on Friday September 17th I presented a plan that kept the second largest reservoir in Colorado, our irrigation systems, as well as the entire watershed of the Dolores River as it is currently under consideration for a National Conservation Area, together as a community of interest. I understand you have many considerations to weigh. While this is our wish as a community it may not outweigh the wishes of our neighboring county to paint a different plan. What is untenable is that this 2nd staff plan has actually moved further from aligning to current voting districts. As before, you could have easily made the 58th and 59th district align with the Dolores RE-4 school district lines and still meet your population thresholds. The positive affect of doing this would be reduced voter confusion and result in much easier implementation by our elections department that has a staff of only one person. It is obvious you either were not listening or you disagreed with our logic. I admire the idea of an independent redistricting, however I am surprised to hear that you only have one geographer on the commission. To my knowledge your discussions have not considered the effects of your decisions on the workload on elections officials. By removing the data scientists and local elections departments from the conversation, your commission has nothing left to base their decisions on other than that of special interests and politically affiliated groups. This is the opposite of what Amendments Y and Z were supposed to achieve. Colorado is known within the nation for its well-trained geo-data scientists and robust elections system. In the future I suggest you utilize these assets rather than bypass them. Sincerely, Douglas Roth Montezuma County GIS Department Cortez, CO

The split of Fort Collins has been wrong for 20 years, a clear gerrymander. CSU is a community of interest and the southern part is completely different. Split Fort Collins north and south, not east and west. The university influenced part of town has apartments, renters etc. all that you would expect with a young population. The family side of Fort Collins is a different community of interest. Split my town north and south, not east and west.

The proposed districts for Fort Collins does not represent the actual communities of interest, just like the existing districts. It's obvious that the north part of Fort Collins and the south part are quite distinct, and should have their own representation. Please draw the district map so the north and south of Fort Collins are properly represented.

In order to to recognize the distinct communities of interest, and to have equitable representation, I recommend the new districts be drawn so that the CSU community in the north of Fort Collins is one district, and the south which is mostly families is the other district. The current proposal favors the pre-existing districts, which fail to properly represent the distinct COIs.

Hello Commissioners: Thank you again for your tireless work on this redistricting process! I am grateful for your long months of dedication! I spoke to you in July at the Lory Student Center and asked for you to consider a redistricting map that would divide the city of Fort Collins into 2 districts - primarily unifying the CSU/academic community together in one district and keeping the rest of Fort Collins (the business/family) in a second district. (Please see the attached map which I presented at the July hearing and which I have not amended since then.) I urge you to please consider the following points that I shared over the summer with you: First, the map I am proposing compacts the districts in an optimal way. It keeps the city of Fort Collins to just 2 districts rather than the 3 represented on the preliminary map. Second, Fort Collins can be logically divided into 2 distinct communities of interest: The first Community of Interest is the college demographic that is concentrated in the northwest portion of Fort Collins around CSU. These are residents whose interests and needs are unique to the student and college-centered population. The second Community of Interest is the southeast portion of Fort Collins that is represented by a business and family-oriented demographic. The NE, SE, and SW sections of our city are populated primarily by citizens who are primarily engaged in their careers and in raising their children. As another Fort Collins resident pointed out at the hearing in July (can't remember his name, but he is an investment manager who works with many employees in the tech industry), the heavy concentration of people who work in the tech industry need representation and he suggested that the preliminary map was not adequate in this regard. The boundaries on the proposed map use Lemay Avenue as an east/west boundary and Horsetooth Road as the north/south boundary. These boundaries largely reflect the geographical distinction between our College-oriented and our Business and Family Communities of Interest. My husband and I have lived in both of these Communities of Interest during our time in Fort Collins, and we can personally attest to the unique environment of each. When considering political competitiveness, this 2-district split also seems to make sense. As the political climate in our country becomes increasingly polarized, I hope that we in Colorado can set an example for the nation that all citizens benefit from a diversity of voices and perspectives during an election season. I hope that Fort Collins will always be a place where varied individuals and ideas have an opportunity to be heard and voted on based on their merits. Thank you for your consideration of these points as you work to draw district lines that compactly represent our Fort Collins communities of interest. Again, I appreciate the effort you are giving to ensure that our districts are logical, fair, and equitable. I sincerely hope that each of you can relax and enjoy some down time after this season of extra work! Mary Kay Morrison

Hello Commissioners: Thank you again for your tireless work on this redistricting process! I am grateful for your long months of dedication! I spoke to you in July at the Lory Student Center and asked for you to consider a redistricting map that would divide the city of Fort Collins into 2 districts - primarily unifying the CSU/academic community together in one district and keeping the rest of Fort Collins (the business/family) in a second district. (Please see the attached map which I presented at the July hearing and which I have not amended since then.) I urge you to please consider the following points that I shared over the summer with you: First, the map I am proposing compacts the districts in an optimal way. It keeps the city of Fort Collins to just 2 districts rather than the 3 represented on the preliminary map. Second, Fort Collins can be logically divided into 2 distinct communities of interest: The first Community of Interest is the college demographic that is concentrated in the northwest portion of Fort Collins around CSU. These are residents whose interests and needs are unique to the student and college-centered population. The second Community of Interest is the southeast portion of Fort Collins that is represented by a business and family-oriented demographic. The NE, SE, and SW sections of our city are populated primarily by citizens who are primarily engaged in their careers and in raising their children. As another Fort Collins resident pointed out at the hearing in July (can't remember his name, but he is an investment manager who works with many employees in the tech industry), the heavy concentration of people who work in the tech industry need representation and he suggested that the preliminary map was not adequate in this regard. The boundaries on the proposed map use Lemay Avenue as an east/west boundary and Horsetooth Road as the north/south boundary. These boundaries largely reflect the geographical distinction between our College-oriented and our Business and Family Communities of Interest. My husband and I have lived in both of these Communities of Interest during our time in Fort Collins, and we can personally attest to the unique environment of each. When considering political competitiveness, this 2-district split also seems to make sense. As the political climate in our country becomes increasingly polarized, I hope that we in Colorado can set an example for the nation that all citizens benefit from a diversity of voices and perspectives during an election season. I hope that Fort Collins will always be a place where varied individuals and ideas have an opportunity to be heard and voted on based on their merits. Thank you for your consideration of these points as you work to draw district lines that compactly represent our Fort Collins communities of interest. Again, I appreciate the effort you are giving to ensure that our districts are logical, fair, and equitable. I sincerely hope that each of you can relax and enjoy some down time after this season of extra work! Mary Kay Morrison

I believe that the most important way to make elected representatives responsive to their constituents is to make congressional districts COMPETITIVE. The current map that you've approved doesn't do that; it appears to make blue districts bluer and red districts redder. This is likely to ensure that Congress members from Colorado will not feel the need to listen. I'd like to see districts which are no more that 5% one way or the other to the greatest extent possible. Your map does exactly the opposite.

I live in Montezuma County and we absolutely DO NOT want Boulder in our Western Slope! Putting Boulder with their 88,000+ people would be unfair to the conservative people who live here. We are already a minority in Colorado and feel our vote doesn’t count.