Colorado's legislative map makers just released their first proposal for our state's districts -- but the maps are in need of major changes.

Why? Because many of these new maps completely ignore the Colorado Constitution and the will of the voters expressed through Amendments Y and Z -- by putting communities of color at major risk of racial gerrymandering.

Across the state, communities of color were split and fractured in such a way that the number of districts they can meaningfully influence has been more than cut in half -- which is especially shameful given that the Colorado Constitution requires our new maps to prioritize our communities.

These maps should be a wake-up call to every Coloradan who cares about racial equity and fair representation.

Just one example of how this redistricting proposal would rob communities of color of their right to fair representation: our current General Assembly House map has 11 majority-minority districts. We can, and should have more. The preliminary map includes 9, but our analysis shows there could be at least 16. Similarly, neither the Congressional map nor the Senate map prioritize BIPOC communities.

We worked hard to eliminate gerrymandering in Colorado, but our fight is not over. We must hold the redistricting commissions accountable to the constitution and ensure they prioritize communities of interest, especially communities of color, in the next iteration of maps.