Colorado Dems see proposed redistricting as possible way to unseat Rep. Coffman

Link. Days after U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman proposed printing more ballots only in English, Democrats released a new congressional map that would increase the Latino population in his district from 9 percent to 22 percent.

And this from the article:

GOP attorney Richard Westfall said the Republican map creates only minimal changes to current boundaries so it doesn’t disrupt Latinos. Democrats, he said, created a “very significant and unnecessary dilution of existing Hispanic voting strength” in the 2nd District, represented by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Boulder Democrat.

Last week, Coffman announced he plans to introduce legislation to repeal portions of the 1973 voting act so ballots and other election materials would only have to be printed in English. He said the current law states that if a certain threshold is reached, then everyone in the entire county must have dual-language ballots.

“The method for determining which counties fall under the mandate is highly suspect,” said Coffman, a former Colorado secretary of state. He noted that respondents are asked if English is not their native language, do they comprehend English “very well,” “well,” “fair” or “none at all.” “Anyone that answers anything but ‘very well’ is classified as English deficient and is counted toward the threshold,” he said