Senatorial and representative districts may be altered from time to time, as public convenience may require. When a senatorial or representative district shall be composed of two or more counties, they shall be contiguous, and the district as compact as may be. No county shall be divided in the formation of a senatorial or representative district.
Districts of the same house shall not overlap. All districts shall be as compact as may be and shall consist of contiguous whole general election precincts. No part of one county shall be added to another county or part of another county in forming a district. When a district includes two or more counties they shall be contiguous.
Each district shall be as compact in area as possible and shall consist of contiguous whole general election precincts. Districts of the same house shall not overlap. Except when declared by the general assembly to be necessary to meet the equal population requirements of section 46, no part of one county shall be added to all or part of another county in forming districts. When county boundaries are changed, adjustments, if any, in legislative districts, shall be as prescribed by law.
The maximum population deviation of five percent between districts is a reasonable standard which will allow greater flexibility in the location of small cities and towns within single legislative districts and which will make it easier to avoid splitting counties between legislative districts. The use of a five percent deviation would also permit more consideration of the ethnic, cultural, economic, and other aspects of reapportionment called for in the proposal.
The proposal would reduce the impact that partisan politics can have on the drawing of legislative district boundaries, through the placement of the commission outside the legislative branch and through the requirements for appointment of commission members by all three branches of state government. The proposal's more stringent requirements for consideration of communities of interest, for compact districts, and for minimization of the splitting of cities and towns, and the public visibility of the activities of the reapportionment commission would tend to reduce the gerrymandering of legislative districts.
(1) the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause and the Fifteenth Amendment; (2) section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; (3) article V, section 46 (equality of population of districts in each house); (4) article V, section 47(2)(districts not to cross county lines except to meet section 46 requirements and the number of cities and towns contained in more than one district minimized); (5) article V, section 47(1)(each district to be as compact as possible and to consist of contiguous whole general election precincts); and (6) article V, section 47(3) (preservation of communities of interest within a district).
The state shall be divided into as many senatorial and representative districts as there are members of the senate and house of representatives respectively, each district in each house having a population as nearly equal as may be, as required by the constitution of the United States, but in no event shall there be more than five percent deviation between the most populous and the least populous district in each house.
Except when necessary to meet the equal population requirements of section 46, no part of one county shall be added to all or part of another county in forming districts. Within counties whose territory is contained in more than one district of the same house, the number of cities and towns whose territory is contained in more than one district of the same house shall be as small as possible. When county, city, or town boundaries are changed, adjustments, if any, in legislative districts shall be as prescribed by law.
Whole Senate District Allocations:6 |
Total | 2000 | Adopted | Rodriguez | Wells 37 | |||
County | Population | Census | Plan | 5 Alt. | Alt. | lines |
Adams | 363,857 | 2.96 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
Arapahoe | 487,967 | 3.97 | 3 | 4 | 4 | |||
Boulder | 291,288 | 2.37 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
Denver | 554,636 | 4.51 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |||
Douglas | 175,766 | 1.43 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
El Paso | 516,929 | 4.21 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |||
Jefferson | 527,056 | 4.29 | 3 | 3 | 4 | |||
Larimer | 251,494 | 2.05 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
Pueblo | 141,472 | 1.15 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
Weld | 180,936 | 1.47 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Districts 22, 21, and 20 work their way from south to north along the Douglas/Arapahoe/Denver boundary shared with Jefferson County. The northernmost district, district 23, crosses into Adams County to achieve equal population and to make it possible to include Westminster in only two Senate districts (districts 23 and 26). The irregular boundary on the north side of district 23 is caused by the boundary of the City and County of Broomfield.
Within counties whose territory is contained in more than one district of the same house, the number of cities and towns whose territory is contained in more than one district of the same house shall be as small as possible.
[S]ubstantial equality of population and avoidance of splitting counties cannot always be met simultaneously. When they cannot, the avoidance of split counties must yield. The area of the state in which these conflicts occur is subject to adjustment, and the Commission must have the discretion to choose where the necessary and constitutionally permissible compromises are made.
Because of the Commission's choices of where to begin drawing house districts, and in order to bring “closure” to the Final Plan and preserve equality of population, Westminster was split into more parts than if the Commission had proceeded differently.
It ... appears from the Commission's rationale that it considered itself at liberty to start the cartography of reapportionment at any point of Colorado geography it might choose....[T]he constitutional criteria instead contemplate the Commission taking an overview of Colorado's population by county, then generating a map that respects the state's legal preference for county integrity, then applying minimization of city divisions, compactness, contiguity, and community of interest criteria to add portions of counties to other counties in forming districts, when necessary.
Whole Senate District Allocations: |
Total | 2000 | Adopted | Rodriguez | Wells 37 | |||
County | Population | Census | Plan | 5 Alt. | Alt. | lines |
Mesa | 116,255 | 0.95 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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