Denver Post: How Colorado draws its voting maps would change if Amendments Y and Z are approved

Back in 2011, Colorado was getting ready to start the once-a-decade task of redrawing the boundaries of the state’s legislative districts.

Rob Witwer, then a redistricting commissioner, floated a request to his fellow commissioners.

His idea: Let nonpartisan staff draw the initial maps for commissioners to consider so they aren’t immediately labeled as “Republican” or “Democrat” like other maps that mysteriously emerge. Another: Make changes to maps in public.

The other commissioners flatly rejected his request. Seven years later, Colorado voters will get the final say.

Witwer’s ideas are now part of a broader overhaul of redistricting that voters will consider this election cycle. Two ballot measures would change the state’s constitution and overhaul how the state draws the boundaries for congressional and legislative districts every decade after each census reflects population changes. Amendments Y and Z are intended to take the politics and partisanship out of redistricting, a process that critics say currently favors political insiders. …

Colorado is part of a national trend of states moving forward with redistricting reforms. Three other states — Michigan, Missouri and Utah — have ballot measures this November that would change redistricting, said Kathay  Feng, national redistricting director of Common Cause, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more transparency in government.

“I think that there is a very strong reaction to people feeling like this process is closed, it’s secretive and it is intentionally so because there are partisan shenanigans going on where one party or a set of incumbents are trying to manipulate the lines,” Feng said.