Colorado to vote on redistricting

Gerrymandering reform target of ballot measures

DENVER — Colorado voters this November will be asked to vote on two ballot measures that would overhaul the state’s redistricting process and seek to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

Supporters say the measures could serve as a national model at a time when gerrymandering — the practice of drawing political district boundaries to favor a particular party at the ballot box — is under heightened scrutiny across the country.

Top lawmakers on Wednesday signed the referred measures in an afternoon ceremony, just more than a week after they passed both chambers unanimously.

Kent Thiry, a political independent who previously backed successful campaigns to open state primaries to unaffiliated voters, called the proposed reforms “a big step towards protecting one of the crown jewels of any state, which is the fairness and credibility of their elections.”

Electoral maps have come under fire in states across the country in recent years. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court redrew the state’s Congressional maps earlier this year, after finding that they were illegally skewed toward Republicans. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a gerrymandering case out of Wisconsin, and maps in a number of other states face legal challenges as well.

Colorado has a troubled history of its own. Courts have stepped in to choose the district maps three of the last four redistricting cycles.