Montrose, CO— The Montrose Board of County Commissioners were presented with proposed changes to the commissioner districts at this morning’s board meeting. These proposed changes are open for public comment and are available at montrosecounty.net.
The Geographic Information Systems Department created the maps based on a requirement in the Colorado Revised Statutes. The proposed changes were made in accordance with population data provided by the state legislative council. Additionally, the changes were made in collaboration with new voter precincts as created by the Clerk and Recorder’s Office.
The 2020 census, delayed due to the pandemic, lists Montrose County’s population at 42,679, which is up from the 2010 census of 41,276 individuals (census link here).
“The county is seeking public comment on the new proposed commissioner districts,” said Lisa Goetsch, Montrose County Geographic Information Systems Manager. “The districts are important as they help provide the framework for future commissioner candidates. For instance, a commissioner must reside in his/her district in order to be a candidate for county commissioner.”
One change from the 2011 redistricting is that historically counties have been statutorily required to subtract incarcerated populations from the county population totals prior to redistricting. Under a new bill (HB21-1047), the state legislative council will reassign incarcerated individuals to their last-known home address for the purposes of redistricting. Individuals in federal penitentiaries are not included in the reallocation process from the legislative council. The reallocation from the legislative council added 71 individuals (from the incarcerated population) to the redistricting totals.
The proposed county redistricting map can be found at https://www.montrosecounty.net/DocumentCenter/View/16409/redistricting-011822. Comments may be submitted to commissioners@montrosecounty.net or via phone at 970-249-7755.
