Know your boundaries

As the 2022 election cycle seems to be heating up early, election precincts and municipal boundaries were a point of discussion during the May 4 meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners.

The discussion stemmed from concerns raised by Joey Correnti IV, Carbon County Republican Chairman, to Carbon County Clerk Gwynn Bartlett. 

In addition to the discussion of election precincts, Bartlett also briefly talked to the commissioners about the voter identification law recently passed by the Wyoming Legislature.

In or out?

According to Bartlett, a law passed by the Wyoming Legislature in 2002 led to the creation of Wyoming State Statute 22-7-103, which concerns the establishing or altering of election districts and precincts.

“It talks about when you alter election districts and precincts that if there is a precinct that crosses a municipal boundary, then the board should state on the record why that is being done. In 2002, after redistricting, there was a resolution passed to change some precincts,” said Bartlett. “Many of our precincts cross municipal boundaries but at that time it wasn’t put on the record why.”

Though Saratoga’s election precinct, 11-1, is within the municipal boundaries, Bartlett stated many of the other municipalities in Carbon County have election precincts that extend beyond their town limits. Using Rawlins as an example, the county clerk stated part of Precinct 1-2 is inside the boundaries while part of it is outside the boundaries. Additionally, Baggs 15-1, Encampment 12-1 and Riverside 13-1 all encompass areas outside of the boundaries of the respective municipalities.

The statute referenced by Bartlett reads “Election districts and voting precincts shall coincide with the boundary of a municipality or ward therein ... shall not cross municipal boundaries except in cases where the board of county commissioners finds, and specifies in the minutes of its meeting the reasons why it is not practical to conform the boundaries of the election district or precinct to the municipal boundary.”

Bartlett informed the commissioners that, after Correnti had asked why the election precincts did not conform to municipal boundaries and if there was anything on the record, she and Deputy Clerk Lisa Smith searched through past records. It appeared, however, that nothing was put into the record explaining Carbon County’s election precincts.

“I thought it would be a good idea to put it on the record today that those precincts cross the municipal boundary and that they will be reviewed in each redistricting process including in next year when we’re looking at all of our precincts,” said Bartlett. “Commissioner Espy, Joey and Lisa and myself all met a couple weeks ago in my office to kind of talk it out and I just can’t see making any changes right now with redistricting coming next year. I think that would be the more appropriate time to look at it and discuss it further.”

The Wyoming Legislature undertakes redistricting every 10 years following the reception of data from the United States Census. The size of House and Senate districts are based upon the rise or fall of population and can either reduce or increase the size of a district. House District 47, for example, encompassed all of Carbon County and extended slightly in Albany County prior to 2010.

After the 2010 Census, however, the borders of House District 47 grew to encompass communities such as Farson-Eden and Bairoil. 

As discussion continued, Chairman John Johnson asked if the current formation of the election precincts allowed people living outside of a municipality to vote in municipal elections. Bartlett, in response, stated that her office would “split” the district.

“So, Precinct 1-2-0 is in town, 1-2-1 is out of town,” said Bartlett. “So we have that distinguished on the ballots and a separate ballot for those that are in and out of town.”

Though there was no formal resolution, the BOCCC unanimously voted to confirm the election districts and precincts as currently designated.

Show Me Some ID

Another election related topic was that of Wyoming’s recently passed voter ID law. According to Bartlett, the law would be on the bigger topics discussed by the Wyoming County Clerk’s Association.

“One of the things we’re looking at is making sure that we do it uniformly throughout the state and what we’ll do in certain scenarios when someone produces a certain type of ID versus another one,” said Bartlett.

House Bill 75 was sponsored by Representative Chuck Gray (D - Casper) and co-sponsored by 41 other representatives and 15 senators including Representative Jerry Paxton (R - Encampment) and Senator Larry Hicks (R - Baggs). Effective July 1 of this year, the newly passed law lists acceptable forms of identification to vote in Wyoming elections.

Those forms of identification include a Wyoming driver’s license, a Wyoming identification card, a valid United States passport, a United States military card, a tribal identification card, or a drivers license or identification card from another state. Identification would only be required if voting in person and would not be required by someone using an absentee ballot.

While there are some counties in Wyoming that will be holding elections in November of this year, the next election cycle for Carbon County will begin in 2022.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 2 p.m. on May 18 at Riverside Town Hall in Riverside.