News Clips

Donald Trump incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he can still appear on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Colorado next year, a Denver District Court judge ruled Friday. The case is headed to the Colorado Supreme Court on appeal.

“Changing the name of a neighborhood or the name of a syrup bottle is all good, but I don’t think it’s the systemic change that people want,” she said. “An independent redistricting commission actually could be that change... I think that is a fundamental shift that could be really radical and really cool.”

“It shouldn’t be the case that if you’re a politician, you get to draw the maps and decide who’s in your district. By having two independent redistricting commissions, we’re ensuring that everyday Coloradans are going to be the folks drawing those maps.”

Amanda Gonzalez, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, says the state's system shows that when voters can mail in ballots, cast ballots at any center in their county and drop ballots off before or after work, people want to vote. "When they have several weeks of early voting available, it's not just one day," she points out. "They participate in our system. And when they turn in their ballots, we get better policies, we get more accountable politicians, and that's good for all of us."

Amanda Gonzalez, executive director of the Colorado Common Cause advocacy group, said short term adjustments could help the ballot process maintain some normalcy. The new order allows the Secretary of State to adjust deadlines and other details, she noted, but voters will still hold the ultimate say. “Voters are still going to vote on (these measures), assuming the signatures are collected,” she said. Any longer-term changes would have to be carefully considered, however. She envisioned a scenario where push notifications and mobile phones make it far easier for certain causes to get on the ballot.

The Colorado Accurate Residence For Redistricting Act is “a victory for fair maps in Colorado,” Patrick Potyondy, policy manager for Colorado Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on fair and accountable political representation that supported the legislation, wrote in an email. “Under this reform, no legislator or congressional representative of either party would benefit politically any longer because of the state prison in their district that bloats their local population,” he wrote. “The bill removes a perverse incentive for elected officials in the legislature or in Congress to want more people imprisoned in their districts… This will hopefully help reduce our level of mass incarceration.”