In a contested battle to redraw the lines for El Paso County Commissioner districts, officials are homing in on a potentially left-leaning district, laying the foundation for the first Democratic commissioner in 50 years.

While residents and the El Paso County Redistricting Commission continue to grapple with prioritizing competing needs of racial minorities and military installations when drafting maps, southeast Colorado Springs is crystalizing as a voting bloc after commissioners on Monday eliminated several preliminary maps that split the area, as well as blocked from future consideration any new maps that did not keep the southeast intact.

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The move is in response to consistent resident feedback that dividing the area, including its racially and culturally bonded communities, into three commissioner districts effectively dilutes its voting power. 

The current five members of the El Paso County Board of Commissioners in April tasked themselves with redrawing the districts that could hold for another 10 years, as commissioner districts are redrawn every second odd-numbered year after a national census.

Residents have defined that region as a group of just under 30 voter precincts west and northwest of the Colorado Springs Airport that each have a minority population of 45% or greater.

“We already believe that this stuff is gerrymandered, we already believe that we have no shot, we already believe that if we vote, our vote does not matter,” District 5 Commissioner Chauncey Johnson said Monday.

District 2 resident and El Paso County Democratic Party chair Mischa Smith said she has grown up in the southeast part of the city and is part of a military family, but raised concern over military installations holding more weight in boundary-drawing decisions when many servicemembers are not required to register to vote in Colorado.

“Members of the military communities often choose not to be registered to vote in El Paso County but are being prioritized over the people who have resided here their whole lives,” Smith said. “Other than diluting the power of people of color, I can’t see any reason for that overemphasis.”

El Paso County GOP chair Vickie Tonkins also appeared before commissioners, calling the emphasis on race as a criterion “segregation.”

“We keep talking about putting people in voting blocs by race, and I’m just disgusted by it, to be honest with you,” said Tonkins, who is Black.

Commissioners disputed the claim that they are continuing efforts to gerrymander the southeast, pointing to several maps specifically requested by the commission that consolidate those nearly 30 precincts.

“I believe all of the maps that have been developed over the last several meetings … have better consolidated southeast Colorado Springs than is current,” District 4 Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez Jr. said. “Those statements are not accurate.”

Under House Bill 21-1047, counties cannot see more than 5% in population deviation between their most and least populous districts. The bill also encourages, as much as possible, preserving “communities of interest – such as urban, rural or trade areas, or other factors like education, environment or water needs – to ensure “fair and effective representation.”

A consolidated southeast would fall either in District 4 or District 5. But commissioners have struggled to also accommodate other priorities – keeping Monument and Black Forest, Fountain and Fort Carson, and Falcon and Peyton together within a district – due to population constraints.

In one map, pictured, moving heavily populated southeast precincts together would require the entire part of the Eastern Plains, from near Black Forest to Pueblo County, to have just one commissioner and separate Fountain from Fort Carson.

Gonzalez and several Fountain officials have been staunchly opposed to splitting Fountain and Fort Carson between districts.

But District 2 Commissioner Carrie Geitner, who lives in Falcon, has advocated for keeping the Eastern Plains region, which currently has two commissioners, together, as its several unincorporated communities rely on a county commissioner to be their sole representative.

Those communities and their many active-duty military residents are just as tied to Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases as Fountain is to Fort Carson, she argued.

“I don’t know how we resolve that yet. I’m sensitive to the concerns about Fountain and Fort Carson, as well,” Geitner said. “But I’m going to continue to advocate for those eastern residents, because they do not have as much representation.”

Commissioners also blocked from consideration any maps that extend District 5 east of Powers Boulevard and directed county staff to, from now on, automatically evaluate any future maps submitted by the public based on criteria, such as political competitiveness, racial makeup and population variation.

More information on the county Redistricting Commission, how to create and submit redistricting map proposals and further resources can be found at https://www.elpasoco.com/redistricting/.

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