Legislative Council staff and the Office of Legislative Legal Services held a review and comment hearing on three proposed constitutional initiatives — #324, #325, and #326 — that would restrict redistricting criteria by banning the use of partisan data, repealing the requirement to maximize politically competitive districts, and, in the case of #325 and #326, requiring congressional districts to be drawn using citizen population rather than total population. No votes were taken; the session focused on identifying technical drafting problems and unresolved legal questions that proponents will need to address before the title board process.
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Caroline Martin argued that 'may' in proposed sections 1C, 2B, and 2D is typically construed as permissive under current drafting conventions, questioning whether those sections were intended to be optional. Scott Gessar pushed back, contending that 'may not be created with' and 'no county may be divided' would be construed as prohibitions. Martin clarified that under current statute 'may not' means 'is allowed to if they would like to, at the subject's discretion,' and the exchange resulted in agreement to use 'must not' formulations going forward.
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“The intent is to harmonize it. That's I think, a necessary repeal to harmonize it with the new proposed Section 1C, in which the commission does not use partisan voter registration. So if a commission is, or a map maker is going to create politically competitive districts, that requires the use of partisan information. In other words, how voters tend to vote on a partisan basis. So in order to harmonize those two, it's necessary to remove that section.”
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Sign in to subscribeAll right, I'll call to order our review and comment hearing for proposed initiatives 25, 26, number 324, 325 and 326. My name is Julia Jackson with Legislative Council staff. We'll have everyone go around the table and introduce themselves. My name is Caroline Martin and I'm with the Office of Legislative Legal Services. Frederick Michael Landstrom, Proponent Kathleen Chandler, proponent Scott Gessar. I'm representative for the proponents and I'll be addressing your questions today. Thank you. Section 1401051, Colorado Revised Statutes requires the directors of the Legislative Council staff and the Office of Legislative Legal Services to quote, review and comment on initiative petition for proposed laws and amendments to the Colorado Constitution. We have submitted our comments and questions on these three measures to you in memos which we will be going over today. The purpose of this statutory requirement of the directors of Legislative Council Staff and the Office of Legislative Legal Services is to provide comments and questions intended to aid designated representatives and the proponents they represent in determining the language of their proposal and to avail the public of the contents of the proposal. Our first objective is to be sure that we understand…
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