By admin 
Colorado voters will decide in November whether to make it more difficult to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts outside of the process laid out in the state constitution.
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Amendment 86 would require public input and a court review of any mid-decade congressional redistricting — that’s redistricting that happens outside of the once-in-a-decade, census-driven process handled by an independent commission.
Read on for more information on what the ballot measure would do, why it was brought and who is behind the initiative.
What Amendment 86 would do
Amendment 86 would amend the state constitution to require that Colorado’s Independent Redistricting Commission reconvene, hold public hearings to review and ultimately approve any Colorado congressional map redrawn outside of the normal 10-year process, next scheduled to happen in 2031.
The commission was created through ballot measures passed by voters in 2018 and is charged with carrying out the state’s once-a-decade redistricting process.
The amendment, which requires the support of 55% of voters to pass, would also require that the Colorado Supreme Court review and approve any state congressional map redrawn in the middle of a decade before it could go into effect.
The commission and court would be forced to reject any map that fails to keep “communities of interest” whole, as well as any map drawn to favor one political party.
Why Amendment 86 was brought
Amendment 86 was Republicans’ response to a Democratic redistricting effort in Colorado that sought to put a measure on the November ballot asking voters to amend the state constitution and redraw the state’s congressional districts for the 2028 and 2030 elections.
The initiative would have overridden Colorado’s normal, once-a-decade redistricting process, which last took place in 2021 and resulted in a new congressional map for the state that went into effect for the 2022 election.
The new districts drawn by the Democratic proposal would have given Democrats an outsized chance at flipping three seats held by Republicans, leaving the GOP with only one of the state’s eight seats. It was brought as part of a nationwide push by both parties to gain an edge through mid-cycle gerrymandering. Those efforts, set off at the urging of President Donald Trump, have benefited Republicans overall.
But the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously ruled in June that the Democrats’ ballot measure violated the “single subject” requirement in the state constitution, which requires that ballot initiatives have only one central purpose.
The timing of the Supreme Court’s decision meant that Democrats didn’t have enough time to put forth a different ballot measure this year. So their plans, and the $4.7 million they spent on the redistricting effort, went up in smoke.
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But Republicans were far enough along with Amendment 86 that they decided to continue with their measure as a proactive step against future mid-cycle Democratic redistricting efforts.
Who is behind Amendment 86
Advance Colorado, a conservative political nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors, is behind Amendment 86.
“The gist of it is adding criteria around competitiveness and not allowing maps to be drawn to benefit one political party,” Michael Fields, who leads Advance Colorado, told Colorado Politics earlier this year.
The Fair Redistricting Colorado issue committee is also backing the measure. It received $250,000 in August from the American Revival PAC, which was created by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican.
Fair Maps Colorado is another issue committee backing the measure, but it hadn’t reported any fundraising or spending through Sept. 2.
Who is opposing Amendment 86
There doesn’t appear to be much organized opposition to Amendment 86 right now.
Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, the issue committee that worked on the Democratic redistricting measure, doesn’t plan to campaign against the Republican initiative.
“Coloradans for a Level Playing Field is not planning to fight the Republican measure,” a spokesperson for the group said.
A separate Democratic group, Colorado Draws the Line, an issue committee that was also formed to support a redistricting ballot measure this year, says it will fight Amendment 86.
“While Republicans freely redraw congressional maps in red states to eliminate Democratic seats, Advance Colorado is trying to make sure Colorado can never fight back,” Val Beck, executive director of Colorado Draws the Line, said in a written statement.
But the organization hasn’t reported raising or spending any money yet.
How Amendment 86 appears on the ballot
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning congressional redistricting, and, in connection therewith, reenacting the current process for congressional redistricting in the Colorado Constitution and prohibiting modifications to a final map unless at least three public meetings are held, the modifications do not have the effect of dividing communities of interest or purposefully favoring one political party, and are approved by the congressional redistricting commission and the Colorado Supreme Court?
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Read the nonpartisan state ballot guide analysis of the measure.