Colorado’s Supreme Court has rejected the Democratic-backed ballot measures that sought to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of 2028 to expand Democratic representation from four to seven of the state’s eight districts.
The Democratic plan relied on two linked initiatives that would have replaced Colorado’s independent redistricting commission process with new temporary maps for 2028 and 2030, with neither taking effect unless voters approved both. A related Republican countermeasure, contingent on one of the Democratic proposals passing, fell with it.
In unanimous rulings, the justices held that both Democratic initiatives violated the state constitution’s single-subject requirement for ballot initiatives, finding that pairing a change in the commission’s constitutional status with the adoption of specific new maps created log-rolling concerns. Colorado’s current congressional map, which produced a 4-4 delegation split, will stay in place until the commission’s next redistricting cycle after the 2030 census.
The rulings suggest that Colorado’s single-subject rule will continue to limit measures combining a redistricting process change with specific new maps, shaping how future multi-part initiatives are drafted and challenged.
Read Brief Here: Colorado Redistricting Initiatives #241, #242 & #328