Colorado voters reject mid-decade redistricting restrictions

Colorado voters rejected proposed restrictions on mid-decade partisan redistricting, maintaining state Democrats’ ability to respond to the nationwide redistricting war.

Only 47% of voters approved the referendum Tuesday, below the 55% requirement for a state constitutional amendment. The measure was intended to prevent Colorado from engaging in the redistricting war that President Donald Trump began last year.

The state Democratic Party had opposed the referendum, calling it a Republican push to “disarm Colorado” in that battle. Conservative groups backed the proposal as a way to bolster Colorado’s existing independent redistricting commission.

The referendum would have required the Colorado Supreme Court and the state’s independent redistricting commission to sign off on any mid-decade redistricting.

Colorado voters established the independent commission in 2018, taking congressional mapmaking out of the hands of state lawmakers. The commission drew the state’s current eight-district map after the 2020 census, and the next regular redistricting is scheduled for 2031. Amendment 86 also would have required at least three public meetings before a final map could be modified and barred changes designed to benefit a political party or split communities of interest.

The stakes were particularly high ahead of the 2028 elections. A Democratic-aligned group had pursued a proposal that could have produced a congressional map favoring Democrats in seven of the state’s eight districts, before the state’s high court blocked that effort.

The referendum rejection came just five months after the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously killed a Democratic-aligned attempt to redistrict the state in response to Republicans’ nationwide mid-decade gerrymandering.