AN ACT relating to elections; providing for the election of representatives to the Wyoming house of representatives; specifying requirements for nominations and elections; specifying apportionment and counting procedures for elections of representatives; making conforming amendments; providing for the apportionment of house legislative districts and the number of representatives for each district; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.
Summary
SF0114 would fundamentally change how Wyoming elects members of the House of Representatives. Instead of electing individual candidates in each district, the bill creates a list-based system in which political parties nominate ranked lists of candidates, voters cast a vote for a party list or a petition candidate, and seats are then allocated to those lists based on the number of votes received. The bill also sets out how party nomination methods would work, including allowing major parties to use primaries or other party procedures, while minor parties would nominate by convention rather than primary.
The bill repeals and recreates the statute governing House legislative districts and fixes the number of representatives for each district by county-based district groupings. It also makes conforming changes throughout the election code to exempt House races from standard ballot-format rules, candidate rotation rules, and the usual “largest number of votes wins” language, and it expressly prohibits ranked choice voting in Wyoming. The new system would apply beginning with the 2026 primary and general elections.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would substantially revise Wyoming election law for House races by replacing single-candidate plurality elections with proportional-style list voting and seat apportionment using the greatest divisors/Jefferson method. It would amend multiple election statutes governing nominations, ballot design, petition requirements, canvassing, and party ballot order, while also repealing and replacing the statute that defines House districts and the number of representatives assigned to each district. The bill would affect political parties, candidates, county clerks, the secretary of state, and voters in House elections, and it would bar local governments from authorizing ranked choice voting.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests the bill had some initial support at introduction, passing referral with a 26-4 vote, but it ultimately did not advance and died in committee. No committee transcript is available, so there is no recorded debate to show detailed arguments for or against the proposal. The overall trajectory indicates that while the bill drew enough interest to be introduced and referred, it did not secure sufficient committee support to move forward.
Contention
The main points of contention are likely to have been the bill’s shift away from Wyoming’s traditional district-based, candidate-centered House elections toward a party-list system, and the related reduction in direct voter choice over individual candidates. The bill also appears to raise concerns about party control over nominations, the use of primaries versus conventions, and the mechanics of apportioning seats within multi-member county-based districts. In addition, the explicit prohibition on ranked choice voting suggests the bill was responding to or preempting debate over alternative voting systems, which may have been controversial among election reform advocates and local governments.