Colorado Supreme Court Rejects Democratic Redistricting Plans
The Colorado Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to Democratic hopes to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2028 election, finding that the twin ballot initiatives they had sought in order to redistrict in an off year had violated the state constitution.
The court found that the two ballot proposals violated the “single subject requirement” governing such measures in Colorado law. Democrats had sought to satisfy that mandate by submitting two separate questions — one to conduct an off-year redistricting and the other to temporarily suspend the state’s independent redistricting commission.
However, each initiative included a clause stating that it would take effect only if the other proposal were also approved by voters this November. That amounted to disqualifying evidence that the Democrats were trying to sidestep the single-subject rule, the state’s high court ruled.
“We conclude that the result is not different and that when a measure’s effectiveness is expressly contingent on the passage of a separate and independent measure, the measure contains multiple subjects, just as if the measures were combined into one,” Justice Richard L. Gabriel wrote.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/us/politics/colorado-supreme-court-rejects-democratic-redistricting-plans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share