Wyoming: Lawmakers weigh giving nonviolent felons right to vote | Star-Tribune

The Wyoming Joint Judiciary Interim Committee wants to consider automatically restoring voting rights to nonviolent felons after their incarceration or probation ends. The committee of state lawmakers ordered legislative staff Tuesday to draft a bill that would automatically restore voting rights, as part of a discussion about relieving the Wyoming Parole Board of the decade-old duty of restoring voting rights. The committee ordered a separate bill to relieve the Parole Board of restoring voting rights. Both bills will be discussed before the 2015 legislative session. Currently, the governor and Parole Board restore voting rights in Wyoming. The duty was given to the Parole Board in 2003. Board member Doug Chamberlain said restoring voting rights is time-consuming. This year, the board has already had 300 parole board hearings. If the board denies voting rights to someone who thinks he has the right, an appeal can take time, Chamberlain said.

Wyoming: 2 groups ask for campaign finance change with Supreme Court ruling | Casper Star Tribune

The Cheyenne-based Wyoming Liberty Group and the Alexandria, Va.-based Center for Competitive Politics are calling on the state to change election rules to conform to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The court ruled in McCutcheon v. FEC that donors could not be limited in how much they spend in overall contributions, called aggregate contributions, to political candidates, parties and political action committees in each election cycle, according to the Center for Competitive Politics. The group calls itself the nation’s largest organization dedicated solely to First Amendment political rights. Current Wyoming law limits contributions in an election cycle to $25,000 in aggregate to all candidates, said Steve Klein, of the Wyoming Liberty Group, which fights for economic and political freedoms.

Wyoming: Committee studies restoring voting rights to felons | Star-Tribune

Wyoming lawmakers are going to study between now and the next legislative session the Wyoming Parole Board’s duties to restore convicted felons’ voting rights. On Wednesday, the Management Council, a committee of Wyoming House and Senate leadership, asked the Judiciary Interim Committee to study the issue. That followed an April 3 letter from the Parole Board sent to Senate President Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, asking for an interim study. Parole Board member Douglas Chamberlain, a former House speaker and Torrington resident, doesn’t think restoring voting rights to felons has anything to do with the board’s duties. “I suggested we have that issue revisited by the Legislature if they would because I think it’s a contradiction within the law,” he said.

Wyoming: House drops bill to restore felons’ voting rights | Associated Press

The Wyoming House defeated a bill that would have allowed nonviolent felons to get their civil rights restored immediately after serving their sentences or finishing parole or probation. The House on Thursday failed to give the bill the two-thirds vote required for introduction. Sponsor Dan Zwonitzer, a Cheyenne Republican, said Wyoming is among the most restrictive states in regard to restoring rights as voting and gun ownership to felons.

Wyoming: Conservative group battles Federal Election Commission over election law | Star-Tribune

A conservative Wyoming-based group hopes to battle the Federal Election Commission in the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to change federal election laws. The group, Free Speech, has been hammering at the agency in Wyoming’s federal district and federal appeals courts since the 2012 presidential election. Both courts dismissed the case, prompting Free Speech to petition the Supreme Court on Monday. Free Speech hopes a Supreme Court decision will limit an alleged burden on political speech while giving small-money, politically active groups a chance to compete with big-name, high-dollar political groups in Washington. The FEC claims it doesn’t impede the First Amendment or grassroots groups. “The members of Free Speech are three men from Wyoming who aspire to share their views about ranching, President Obama and other topics with the public on a shoestring budget,” Free Speech’s legal counsel wrote in the petition. “Federal election law made this task impossible by requiring compliance with regulatory standards that even the FEC could not articulate and, when applied, impose a regulatory regime far too burdensome for most citizens.”

Wyoming: Voter registration flap creates new Liz Cheney controversy | Los Angeles Times

One of the marquee races of the coming political year is the GOP primary fight between Liz Cheney and Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, which is rapidly becoming less a political contest than a kind of sagebrush soap opera, “As the Cowboy State Turns.” To recap, there has been the flap over Cheney’s improper acquisition of an in-state fishing license; the sisterly feud sparked by her condemnation of same-sex marriage; and a dust-up between the state’s voluble ex-GOP senator, Alan Simpson — who is backing Enzi — and the candidate’s mother, Lynne Cheney, who either did, or did not, tell him to “shut [his] mouth.” The latest controversy involves Liz Cheney’s husband, Phil Perry, and the matter of his voter registration.

Wyoming: Commission OKs paying attorney fees in 2005 voting rights lawsuit | The Ranger

The Fremont County Commission has approved paying roughly $85,000 toward attorney fees for the plaintiffs in a 2005 voting rights lawsuit. The county’s insurance carrier is to pay the remainder of the $960,000 fee that a federal judge ordered the county to pay the lawyers who represented a group of American Indians in the suit. Commissioners used all $84,000 from their contractual services line item and dipped into the county’s cash reserve for $1,275 to fulfill their obligation. The commission has settled its financial obligations in the suit, but the legal action left a lasting impact on the county.

Wyoming: Voting fraud reports, cases rare in state | Powell Tribune

Despite at least two pending cases, reports and prosecutions of illegal voting in Wyoming are rare, state and local elections officials say. By state Elections Director Peggy Nighswonger’s recollection, you’d have to go back to 2000 to find the previous cases. That was when a former small-town mayor tried voting in both Wyoming and Utah and when some Colorado residents, who owned property in Wyoming, tried voting in a municipal election, Nighswonger said. Because the cases generally are handled at the local level, Nighswonger said there may be other instances she’s unaware of. A search of Circuit Court records dating back more than a decade turned up no prior prosecutions of voter fraud in Park County prior to the recent charges against David D. Koch of Cody. Koch, 38, is facing four felony counts for allegedly registering to vote and then voting in 2010 and 2012 despite two 1996 felony convictions in Alaska.

Wyoming: Tough to get referendum, initiative on Wyoming ballot | Laramie Boomerang

Sponsors of an effort to repeal a new state law say they were so rushed by Wyoming’s referendum deadline that they didn’t have time to count how many signatures they had collected on the petitions they submitted this week. “The referendum process needs to be changed,” said Jennifer Young, of Torrington, who was among those submitting petition signatures Tuesday, minutes before the deadline. “It’s designed for the people to fail and the legislators to not lose a bill they want.” Wyoming’s referendum process is among the most restrictive in the nation, meaning residents have little chance of reaching the statewide ballot with their cause, public policy advocates say. In the last 30 years, only one referendum on a new state law succeeded in making the general election ballot. It failed at the polls.

Wyoming: Legislative committee strikes voter ID proposal | Star Tribune

A group of lawmakers tasked with studying and potentially proposing a bill to require Wyoming voters to show identification at polling places decided not to pursue the matter Tuesday. A trio of county clerks told members of the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee that they didn’t believe a lot of people purposely voted fraudulently in Wyoming. The clerks believed a bigger problem was people voting in the wrong precinct — some purposely and some inadvertently.

Wyoming: Secretary of State Beats Term Limit | Courthouse News Service

Term limits for Wyoming elected officials would improperly keep the secretary of state from seeking a third term, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled. Facing the end of his second four-year term in January 2015, Secretary of State Max Maxfield filed a complaint for declaratory judgment against Wyoming. Maxfield challenged a rule, Section 22-5-103, that limited him to eight years in office in a 16-year span, which voters approved by initiative in 1992. The state argued that Maxfield did not present a justiciable controversy because he did not state in his complaint that he intended to run for a third term. At the request of both parties, a Laramie County certified two questions to the state Supreme Court. It answered them in Maxfield’s favor last week.

Wyoming: Senate committee tables voter ID bill for more work | Star Tribune

Old age and associated complications such as loss of mobility will affect almost all of us. But they shouldn’t block our most basic democratic right – the right to vote — said Lindi Kirkbride of AARP Wyoming. Kirkbride is especially concerned for senior citizens, but all Wyomingites in general, if Senate File 134 become law and residents are forced to show picture identification at polling places. “The scenario is it’s a terribly nasty day,” Kirkbride said. “Someone in a walker wants to go vote. The poll checkers are there and they’re trying to determine, ‘Oh, yours is expired. You can’t vote because your license is expired, sorry.’ It’s going to cause these big lines.” The bill won’t become law this year. But next year could be different.

Wyoming: Senate considers bill that would require voters to show photo ID to cast ballot | The Republic

A Wyoming state Senate committee is considering a bill that would require voters to show a valid photo identification card to cast their ballot. The Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee heard testimony on the measure Thursday and will discuss it again on Tuesday, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported. Republican state Sen. Ogden Driskill, of Devils Tower, the primary sponsor of the bill, said it is not an attempt to stop anyone from voting but would verify voters’ identity and ensure they are in the correct precinct. “A man’s vote is probably the most sacred privilege we’ve got in the United States,” he said. The bill would require voters to show an election judge a valid ID issued by the federal government or the state of Wyoming.

Wyoming: Ballot error throws District 2 election results into question | The Ranger

An error discovered in the Fremont County Commission District 2 primary election could change the outcome of the race that unofficially put the winner on top by a slim 20-vote margin. Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese anticipated meeting with the canvassing board at 1 p.m. Thursday in Lander to discuss the 30 voters who should not have cast ballots in the District 2 race. “They got ballots that had the commissioners’ race on it, and they should not have gotten those ballots.” Freese said. “They shouldn’t have voted on commissioners, in other words.” Freese said the error happened only in the 18-1 Big Bend precinct and with the District 2 race. “It’s fine everywhere else,” she said. “Every other race has not been affected. This is the only one.”

Wyoming: WyLiberty broadens Free Speech lawsuit | Casper Tribune

Attorneys for a Wyoming-based free market think tank broadened the scope of their lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission on Monday. Wyoming Liberty Group (WyLiberty) attorneys filed a motion for preliminary injunction in Free Speech v. Federal Election Commission, a case that began in Wyoming federal court last month. The motion calls for a nationwide injunction against campaign finance regulations that require grassroots groups to register and report with the federal government just to criticize it, according to a news release from the group. Last month’s lawsuit asked for a preliminary injunction on behalf of three Wyoming residents who formed a grassroots organization called “Free Speech.” Since the Free Speech case began, it has grown more significant, said Stephen Klein, staff attorney for Wyoming Liberty Group.

Wyoming: Fremont County protests fees in voting rights case | trib.com

Fremont County is balking at paying legal fees for a group of American Indians whose court challenge forced the county to abandon its system of at-large voting for commissioners. Five members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes won a ruling from U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne in 2010 that at-large voting in the county violated the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting the Indian vote. A federal appeals court early this year rejected Fremont County’s appeal. On appeal, the county didn’t contest Johnson’s finding that at-large voting violated the law. Instead, it challenged the judge’s rejection of its proposals to remediate the violation by creating a single, Indian majority district centered on the Wind River Indian Reservation while continuing with at-large voting in the rest of the county. In rejecting the county’s plans, Johnson wrote that they “appear to be devised solely for the purpose of segregating citizens into separate voting districts on the basis of race without sufficient justification, contrary to the defendants’ assertions.”

Wyoming: Lawsuit challenges redistricting plan | trib.com

Wyoming’s newly adopted legislative redistricting plan is under fire from a group of citizens who filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming it fails to give the state’s less-populous counties fair representation. The lawsuit, filed in state District Court in Laramie, charges that state lawmakers were careful in the legislative session that ended last month to make sure that incumbents didn’t have to run against each other. But it claims the Legislature only gave lip service to the notion of making sure the less-populated counties got a fair voice. Gillette lawyer Nick Carter filed the lawsuit Thursday in Laramie County District Court. It seeks a court order to block Gov. Matt Mead and the other four statewide elected officials from implementing the redistricting plan.

Wyoming: Redistricting bill faces little opposition in House | Trib.com

Despite expectations of a long, contentious debate, the Legislature’s 2012 redistricting bill sailed through the House on Wednesday on voice vote — with only one minor change. House Bill 42, sponsored by the Joint Interim Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions, comes up for a second vote today. Expectations of at least one amendment to change the configuration in the southwest corner of Wyoming faded Wednesday.

Wyoming: Bill would alter how Wyoming handles primary elections | Billings Gazette

In 2010, Chris Rothfuss was elected to the Wyoming Senate, even though registered Republicans and independents in his Laramie district didn’t have a choice in the matter. Now, the Laramie Democrat wants to ensure that doesn’t happen again. Today, he plans to introduce legislation that would change the way political primaries in Wyoming are held. Currently, voters from the two major parties choose their general election nominee during the August primary election; minor parties, such as the Libertarians, nominate their own candidates for the November ballot. Under Rothfuss’ proposal, statewide and legislative candidates from all parties — as well as unaffiliated candidates — would run against each other in a single primary race. All registered voters would be asked to pick two candidates, and the top two vote-getters would then face each other in the general election.

Wyoming: Attorney General Wants Secretary of State to Sue Himself | Eyewitness News 9

The Wyoming attorney general’s office wants a district judge to list Secretary of State Max Maxfield as a defendant in Maxfield’s own lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of term limits for him and other statewide elected officials. Maxfield, who’s now in his second four-year term, filed a lawsuit as a private individual in September claiming that the state law that limits statewide elected officials to two four-year terms is unconstitutional. He previously also served two terms as state auditor.

Editorials: Should Wyoming voters be able to register online? Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online

It is unclear if Wyoming will join the growing number of states that are adding the ability of residents to register to vote online, state officials say. Recently passed legislation in Maryland makes it the 10th state to implement online voter registration. Advocates of abandoning the paper-only policy say it can save money and make voting more accessible to the public.

Jennie Bowser, a senior fellow with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said many states have considered adding the online option since Arizona became the first in 2002.