Seats for all — Plan would give every county representation

Weston County’s efforts to get the Wyoming Legislature to abide by the state’s Constitution when it comes to legislative representation is moving one step forward after Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, announced on May 8 during a Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivision committee meeting in Lander that a subcommittee will be formed to look into the issue. 

During the meeting, Sue Mireles, who was appointed to fill a legislative vacancy declared by the county commission last year and referred to herself as “Weston County’s constitutional senator,” asked Case if the committee planned to address Senate File 174/Senate Enrolled Act 73 referencing constitutional apportionment. 

Case admitted that he had failed to mention SF 174 in his opening statements, but noted that the committee was given the go ahead from the management council to create a subcommittee to look into constitutional apportionment. 

“The Wyoming Constitution has a requirement that there be at least one senator and one representative from every single county, and it’s a legacy of statehood, and even territorial government, that was set aside by the courts,” Case said. 

Case was referencing a case “where the court directed that the Legislature may set aside that requirement of one representative and one senator for counties in order to have legislative districts that are equal in population size and that was in response to developing federal law and, really, the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution about your votes, all votes, being equal. So this has created a disconnect between what the Wyoming Constitution says and who our practice is to apportion the legislature.” 

Case reiterated that the Legislature was directed by the courts to ignore the State Constitution, and said the case was finished “in about” 1991 and that the first election under the new arrangement was in 1992. He said this issue has been a recurring one for “folks that feel we should be doing it a different way and perhaps give more respect to the Wyoming Constitution in that practice.” 

“So, in order to address it, we asked the management council for permission to create a subcommittee to hold hearings and the management council agreed that we can establish a subcommittee,” Case said, noting that the number of people on the committee and the schedule of meetings is still undetermined. 

Case did report that the subcommittee would have up to three meetings across the state. During these meetings, the subcommittee will travel and hold hearings with Legislative Service Office staff to discuss the apportionment issue and potential solutions. 

After these meetings, Case said, the subcommittee will work to establish their findings and conclusions and report back to the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivision committee’s last meeting. He said that he believes this meeting is in November. 

Case told Mireles that he appreciated her asking about the bill and that the committee plans to take it “very serious” as the bill was passed by the Wyoming Legislature. 

In a May 27 email, Case told the News Letter Journal that the subcommittee meetings have not been scheduled yet, but expressed hope that the “effort will help to educate people about the interplay of the US and State Constitutions and the limitations they impose.” 

The Founder’s Plan

As leaders of the movement to apportion the Wyoming Legislature in accordance with the Wyoming Constitution, the Concerned Citizens of Weston County prepared a proposal for consideration, according to an April 17 email from Tricia Baumann, a member of the group. 

The plan has been named The Founder’s Plan, and the proposal was shared with both Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett. 

“Per Chuck and Chip’s testimony during the Legislature, we believe this may be something they support, as they each questioned the judicial interpretation of the 14th Amendment,” Baumann wrote in the email. 

“Our proposal is in compliance with the Judicial interpretation of ‘one man, one vote’ just in case we have to go there,” Baumann said. 

Key features of the plan are a hybrid method combining county integrity (“political subdivisions”) with population-based apportionment; formulas that ensure voting power deviations stay below 1.40% (House) and 3.80% (Senate), and that can be used regardless of any census results; and guarantees that each of Wyoming’s 23 counties has at least one representative and one senator. 

In other words, the plan would allow counties that do not possess enough population to justify a full House or Senate seat to be represented by an individual with weighted voting power based on their population.

According to the proposal, the objective of the plan is to “preserve county boundaries as legislative districts while minimizing population disparities, in compliance with the Wyoming Constitution and federal legal standards.”

As for why it matters, the proposal says it will avoid confusion and arguments during redistricting by using fixed county lines and it aligns with Wyoming’s geographic and demographic needs and legal precedents. 

Senate File 174

As previously reported, Senate File 174 created a committee to look into constitutional apportionment in the Wyoming State Legislature. 

At the time, Rep. JD Williams, R-Lusk, said that  “SF0174 is thoughtfully crafted to encourage the Legislature to carefully consider constitutional apportionment over the interim.” 

The bill states that a committee will be created to “study apportionment of the Legislature as provided by this act during the 2025 interim.”

Further, the bill states that “the Legislature shall make a good faith effort to apportion itself as required by the 14th Amendment in conformance with the principle that the vote of any citizen is approximately equal in weight to that of any other citizen in the State” and that the Legislature “shall make a good faith effort to apportion itself as required by Article 3, Sections 3 and 48 of the Wyoming Constitution by providing for legislative districts that follow county lines and legislative districts that have at least one (1) representative and one (1) senator per county.”

Article 3, Section 3 of the Wyoming Constitution states that every county “shall constitute a senatorial and representative district.” Article 3, Section 48 states that “at the first budget session of the legislature following the federal census, the legislature shall reapportion its membership based upon that census.”

The committee, according to the bill, will conduct meetings in communities across Wyoming to take input on apportionment options. The committee will be required to submit its findings to the Legislature no later than Dec. 1, 2025. 

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower.

Representatives: At a glance

The number of representatives and senators that each Wyoming county would have, according to the Founders’ Plan. 

Note: *denotes the use of “sideboards.” This guarantees one senator and one representative per district, and which keeps voting power on the Floor within a deviation threshold. Voting power would be weighted to ensure each constituent is represented equally. 

District Population # of Reps. # of Sens. 

Laramie 100,700 11 *3 (+1) = 4

Natrona 81,224 9 3

Campbell 46,225 5 2

Sweetwater 41,313 4 1

Albany 39,184 4 1

Fremont 28,661 4 1

Sheridan 31,017 3 1

Park 29,162 3 1

Teton 23,854 3 1

Lincoln 20,600 2 1

Uinta 10,094 2 1

Carbon 14,642 2 1

Converse 14,150 2 *1

Goshen 13,049 1 *1

Big Horn 11,616 1 *1

Sublette 9,897 1 *1

Johnson 8,443 1 *1

Platte 8,147 1 *1

Crook 7,862 1 *1

Washakie 7,661 1 *1

Weston 6,933 1 *1

Hot Springs 4,103 *1 *1

Niobrara 2,268 *1 *1

Total: 64 representatives; and 29 senators