Lining up: Redistricting with Communities of Interest in Colorado

Keywords: Redistricting, Critical Cartography, Legal Geography, Political Geography, Colorado
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 3

Abstract

In 2018, Colorado voters passed Amendment Y, giving redistricting authority to an independent commission, and establishing desired redistricting criteria, including the prioritization of “communities of interest”. There has been a lot of debate over the meaning and efficacy of the COI as a criterion for drawing district lines. Language both in Amendment Y and in Colorado Supreme Court decisions regarding communities of interest remains vague as to what “counts” as a community of interest. While significant attention has been given to the corruptibility of COI and risks for exclusion of minority groups should additional restrictions be applied, this has primarily been looked at from a legal and technical perspective, and not as an issue of the very practice of drawing lines on a map as well as within and around what makes a public (or publics) vis a vis “communities of interest”. Through public input at meetings and in online forums run by Colorado’s independent redistricting commission and ground truthing Colorado’s new districts, I aim to call attention to the complexity and ambiguity of drawing lines for purposes of redistricting as well as for determining what makes a community of interest. This is not merely an issue of law and technology, but the basis of our attempts at political organizing and representation that, despite pushes for democratization of redistricting processes, continue to prioritize the interests of the already powerful.