Voces Unidas de las Montañas has been deeply involved in the redistricting process, testifying and lobbying the Commissions to keep our Latino communities in the mountain regions together, concentrated in the fewest districts possible.
The Legislative Commission’s final maps met our demands. The final House map keeps the greater Roaring Fork Valley from Aspen to Parachute whole in House District 57. This district would be 28.2 percent Latino, making our community of interest politically significant. Gypsum to Vail is kept whole in House District 26 (20.1 percent Latino) and Summit and Lake counties are together in House District 61 (13.7 percent Latino). The senate map, which was approved last night, keeps Aspen to Parachute whole in Senate District 5, where the Latino community would represent 22.3 percent of the district and Senate District 8 keeps Gypsum to Silverthorne whole, where Latinos would make up 18 percent of the district. These maps now go to the Supreme Court for final approval.
But it’s a different story for the Congressional map. Approved last week, the final congressional map unconstitutionally dilutes the voting power of our Latino mountain communities—Aspen to Parachute area is in one district and Gypsum to Silverthorne in another. We are calling on the Colorado Supreme Court to reject the congressional map and send them back to the Commission. We agree with the legal arguments made by groups like CLLARO and LULAC at the Supreme Court yesterday.
Throughout the independent redistricting process, Voces Unidas has been on the frontlines of preserving Latinos' electoral influence. We testified, submitted public comments, and proposed our own coalition map to the Commissions via our partner, CLLARO. We also educated Latinas and Latinos in our communities on the redistricting process through meetings and a website, and trained leaders in our community to provide testimony in the process.
The fight to preserve our electoral influence is not over. Today, we call on the Colorado Supreme Court to approve the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions’ legislative maps and reject the proposed congressional map.
