(PUEBLO, Co.) — On Tuesday, the Board of Elections hosted a public hearing regarding redistricting proposals for the City of Pueblo.

“The redistricting process is something that legally the city has to go through every four years. And we actually did go through this process in 2021 which was the fourth year as required,” said Marisa Stoller, Pueblo City Clerk. “But at that time we didn’t have all the proper census data that we needed because of the delay from the U.S. government.”

The last time districts changed in Pueblo was in 2017, which moved Precinct 9 from District 1 and Precinct 34 from District 1 to District 2.

“So, in the city of Pueblo, we have four districts and the average of our population for each district in each district had exactly the same number of people would be about 27,963,” said Stoller. “And so ideally that is the number of people that we would want in each district.”

According to the city, District 1 has a population of 29,646, which is above the ideal population and above the 2% standard deviation.

Two proposals named “Proposal 1” and “Proposal 2” were up for discussion to help make the population in the four districts even.

“‘Proposal 1’ gets all the percentages under 2%, and that is just moving one precinct name from one district to the other,” said Joy Morauski, GIS Specialist. “And then we go to ‘Proposal 2’ and we’re moving two districts.”

Election Official Alvin Rivera said he favors “Proposal 1,” as it only moves one precinct.

“Well, I favor Proposal 1 and the reason is because it seems to move people from one area to the other with the least amount of activities,” said Rivera. “And I think for that reason alone, it will be much better for constituents that are being served by virtually all of the districts. And I think for that reason, it would be a stronger proposal.”

The proposals are available online along with the current district map for people to understand what this would mean if their precinct was moved.

“So this is only going to affect city council races,” said Stoller. “So the rest of the elections would not be affected by this at all. But for a city council, you would still vote at large, the same as you would before.

The City Clerk’s Office is accepting public feedback both by email or in-person until 5 p.m. on Nov. 28.

“We would still really love to hear from more of the public that are interested in talking to us about this topic,” said Stoller. “So people can go online and look at the press release and look at the map so they can really see what would be changing and how small of a change it really is.”