With just days to go, the pool of applicants for the state’s two redistricting commissions are far short of the 2,100 applicants suggested by the ballot initiatives that put those commissions into place.

Applications are due Tuesday, according to Julia Jackson of the Legislative Council.

The two commissions – one for congressional, the other for legislative – will come up with the maps that will be used for congressional and legislative races for the next decade.

The commissions were approved by voters through two ballot measures in 2018, Amendments Y and Z,  which were referred to voters by the General Assembly.

As of Monday, the the Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission has received 349 applications, and the Independent Legislative Redistricting Commission has received 234 applications. However, the laws suggest a pool of at least 1,050 for each commission, meaning the pool is short more than 1,500 applications. 

A breakdown of the applicant demographics, provided by Legislative Council, shows the applicant pool skews male for both panels, at 63% for the Congressional commission and 57% for the legislative panel. Women make up just 31% of the Congressional applicants and 37% for the legislative group. Both applicant pools are overwhelmingly white and most applicants are at least 60 years of age.

Each commission is to be made up for 12 members, four from the two top political parties and four unaffiliated members.

Once the application process is over, nonpartisan commission staff will review all applications to make sure they meet minimum qualifications. That includes:

• Voting in the last two general elections (2016 and 2018) 
• Affiliated with the same political party or unaffiliated for the last five years
• Congressional commissioners cannot have been a candidate for federal office within the last five years nor an employee of a member or candidate for Congress within the last three years
• Legislative commissioners cannot have been a candidate for the General Assembly within the past five years nor an employee of a member or candidate for the legislature within the past three years.
• Commissioners also cannot be professional registered lobbyists with the last three years, and cannot have been a municipal, county, state or federal elected official in Colorado within the last three years.
• A commissioner appointed to one commission cannot serve on the other. 

Once the applications have been reviewed by the Legislature Council staff, a three-member panel of retired judges, appointed no later than Jan. 5 by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, will randomly pick up to 300 applicants. The law requires those decisions to be unanimous. Those applicants must be affiliated with the state’s largest party, the second largest, and then unaffiliated.

By Jan. 25, the judges’ panel must hold a public meeting and randomly select applicants. From the first pool, which the law says should be 300 from the largest political party, 300 from the second largest and 450 unaffiliated candidates, the pool is whittled down to 150 applications, 50 from each group. The judges’ panel then would randomly select six commissioners from that group. The other six would come from the same pool, but the initial selection – 10 applicants – would be made by legislative leaders. The judges’ panel would then pick four from that pool and two additional unaffiliated applicants. The congressional commissioners must be selected by March 1; the legislative members by March 16. 

The legislative commissioners are required to start meeting by March 30; the Congressional commission is expected to start meeting by March 15. 

All meetings of both commissions are open to the public.