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Some of the commissioners charged with redrawing Colorado’s congressional maps have raised objections to a law requiring them to count state prisoners where they lived prior to their incarceration, instead
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What You Need to Know About Colorado’s Redistricting Process
The state s new independent redistricting commissions will draw the maps that shape the political landscape for the next 10 years. Will the process be able to ensure fairness amid data delays and rampant polarization?Sara Fleming •
April 8, 2021
You’ve likely been hearing about Colorado’s redistricting process more than ever. That’s because the once-a-decade undertaking, which determines the boundaries for both congressional and state legislative districts, is going to look a bit different this go around.
In 2018, Colorado voters passed two ballot referendums, Amendments Y and Z, each with about 71 percent of the vote. The measures require the state to set up two independent commissions, one tasked with congressional redistricting and another with state legislative redistricting. Each commission features a 12-member panel composed of Colorado residents: four registered Democrats, four Republicans,
Democrats on a Senate panel on Tuesday advanced a bill that would allow voters with disabilities to return voted ballots online, a provision that pitted disability advocates against election security experts.
Senate Bill 21-188 from Sen. Jessie Danielson seeks to build on legislation the Wheat Ridge Democrat championed in 2019 that allows voters with disabilities to access a ballot online. Under Danielson s Senate Bill 19-202, a ballot can then be marked, printed and returned, which allows voters with disabilities to cast a ballot privately and independently.
After being signed into law in May 2019, Danielson said Secretary of State Jena Griswold quickly implemented the legislation and it has largely been successful save for one hiccup: few voters with disabilities have a printer.
Census delay sends redistricting ripples nationwide
WASHINGTON The Census Bureau’s late delivery of redistricting data will trigger a cascade of delays across the country, potentially complicating the mapmaking process in many states and delaying local elections.
Congress may still pass a law extending the agency’s deadline to deliver apportionment figures, but that won’t help states about to bump against, or crash through, their own legal deadlines to redraw legislative and congressional maps. A handful of states, such as New Jersey and California, have mechanisms in place to handle census data coming up to four months late. Others, less so.