The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday rejected all three ballot proposals that Democrats had backed to reshape the state's congressional districts before the 2028 election, marking another setback in the party's national effort to counter Republican redistricting strategies.
The court found that the measures, developed by the group Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, violated Colorado's constitutional requirement that ballot initiatives address a single subject. Chief Justice Monica Marquez wrote in one unanimous decision that temporarily halting the state's independent redistricting commission would constitute a major overhaul of Colorado's established process, not merely a procedural change.
One proposal would have suspended the commission, which voters approved in 2018, and allowed voters to adopt a new congressional map specifically for 2028 and 2030. Two other measures attempted to split that goal into separate ballot items. If either approach had succeeded, Democrats would have gained the ability to reconfigure Colorado's eight congressional districts in ways that could yield them seven seats, compared to their current four.
The ruling illustrates the constraints Democrats face in states where they already control the redistricting process. Unlike Republicans in GOP-controlled states, Democratic operatives cannot simply redraw maps through legislation. Instead, they must work within independent commission frameworks that were designed to strip partisan influence from the process.
The battle over Colorado's districts intensified last summer when President Trump urged Republican lawmakers to draw new maps to solidify GOP control of the House. The campaign accelerated this spring after the Supreme Court weakened a key voting rights protection, enabling Republican-controlled states to eliminate majority-Black districts that had elected Democratic representatives.
Virginia Democrats faced similar restrictions and placed a comparable measure on the ballot this year. Voters there approved it narrowly, but the state Supreme Court later blocked implementation.
The Colorado group did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the rulings or potential next steps.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The court's reading of the single-subject rule may shield Colorado's commission from partisan raids, but it also locks Democrats out of a strategy their opponents can deploy freely in Republican states."
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