Colorado Supreme Court Should Reject Efforts to Stifle Latino Voting Power

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The front of the Colorado Supreme Court building.
Entrance to the Colorado Supreme Court in Denver, CO. Photo by Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

Campaign Legal Center (CLC), on behalf of its client the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Colorado LULAC, has submitted a brief and presented oral argument to the Colorado Supreme Court, urging the court to reject the congressional redistricting commission’s adopted map because it violates the Colorado Constitution’s strong protections of Latino voters. 

The Latino community in Colorado has been growing quickly, and the new maps this year need to reflect that. In Colorado, 21.9% of people identify as Latino and that community has increased by close to a quarter million people over the last decade.

Despite this, the commission’s submitted congressional map needlessly dilutes these voters’ electoral influence in the state’s congressional elections. 

The commission’s map violates the Colorado Constitution’s strong protection of Latino voters’ electoral influence. The dilutive map was also the product of a secretive process in which the commission evaluated minority vote dilution outside of public view and in violation of the Colorado Constitution’s robust transparency requirements. 

CLC and LULAC have submitted two alternative congressional plans that satisfy all the Colorado Constitution’s other redistricting criteria as well as or better than the commission’s map, while also avoiding the preventable dilution of Latino voters. 

Both maps, viewable on CLC’s website, would protect Latino voting rights by drawing districts in southern Colorado and the north Denver suburbs that do not dilute Latino voters’ electoral influence.

Coloradans voted overwhelmingly in 2018 to reform the congressional redistricting process and guarantee strong protections for the state’s large and rapidly growing Latino population.

Communities require equity in government representation so that their voices are heard and needs are met. The commission’s submitted map fails that standard and should be rejected by the Colorado Supreme Court.

Georgia is a Communications Assistant at CLC.
Limiting the Ability of Latinos in Colorado to Make Their Voices Heard