A ballot initiative to lower property taxes in Wyoming is going back to the well.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray announced Monday that the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming Through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption” didn’t submit enough eligible signatures to qualify for the 2026 ballot.
The initiative, if approved for the ballot, proposes reducing residential property taxes by 50% in Wyoming.
Gray said although the initiative reached the threshold for valid accepted signatures in at least two-thirds of the counties in the state, it failed to get the overall 29,730 valid signatures needed. Of the 44,650 signatures submitted, the Secretary of State’s Office only found 28,700 valid.
“I want to commend the petition’s committee of applicants for all their hard work in exercising their Wyoming constitutional right to enact laws by the initiative,” Gray said in a press release. “Property tax reduction is a very important issue facing our state.
“The people’s right to propose and enact laws by initiative to address fundamental issues, such as property tax limits, is pivotal. Although the committee’s first submittal was slightly short of the statewide requirement, there is still time to supplement the first submission.”
Gray hasn’t stepped back from his open support for the initiative despite being the public official in charge of deciding its acceptance. In his Monday letter to the initiative’s organizers, he described their efforts as “extraordinary” and an “incredible achievement.”
“Property tax reform is a very important issue facing our state, and I am a strong believer in the right of the people to enact laws by initiative,” Gray said.
Wyoming Voter Initiatives still has until April 2025 to collect more signatures to make up the deficit and qualify for the 2026 ballot.
“We’re gearing up for one final push,” said Brent Bien, one of the lead organizers of the group. “We have plenty of time, we’re not worried about it. There’s still a huge desire around the state to cut residential property tax.”
It took the volunteer group seven months to collect the 44,650 signatures. Each one of the circulators had to be approved by the Secretary of State’s Office and notarized.
It was a first-time experience for most of the people involved.
“It’s a big deal to make this happen,” Bien said.
What Was Wrong?
Roughly 30% of the signatures submitted were determined invalid by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Gray noted the 70% acceptance rate was higher than the roughly 61% rate achieved by the No Labels third-party political petition submitted and accepted by the state in January.
Reasons for rejections, Gray said, included 4,856 voter registration addresses not matching addresses listed on the petition and similar discrepancies, 587 signatures that fell outside the date sequence of the petition circulation, 36 that had illegible writing, 78 ineligible P.O. boxes, 1,080 duplicate and 37 triplicate signatures, 381 questionable signatures, and 4,246 signatures from people who were not registered to vote.
Some of the clerical filing by the organizers also contained errors.
“We had some growing pains in the beginning,” Bien said. “It hasn’t to be done exactly right and that’s what we’re going to be working on over the next couple months.”
Wyoming Voter Initiatives can correct these mistakes and resubmit signatures that were previously rejected, an effort Bien said his team plans to engage. If successful, it will be the first initiative to qualify for the Wyoming ballots since 1996.
“This is a learning process,” Bien said. “We should be pros by the time we’re done with this.”
Reengaged Efforts
Bien said his team plans to meet with Gray about these issues around Aug. 8 and then start collecting more signatures shortly after.
His goal is to have enough signatures collected by the Nov. 5 general election.
“We should have no problem doing that,” Bien said.
The general election date is critical because any petition submitted after that date will likely be subject to greater signature requirements as the number required is based on the voter turnout in the most previous election. Presidential elections historically have a much higher turnout.
Since the petition reached the county requirements for signatures, the additional signatures can be collected from anywhere in Wyoming. Bien said the group may look at going back to places where they didn’t have as much success collecting signatures and failed to meet quotas in Albany, Big Horn, Carbon, Laramie, Natrona, Sweetwater and Fremont counties.
Wyoming Voter Initiatives also recently started a new ballot initiative effort to have all Wyoming elections be done by hand count. Bien said it’s his group’s goal to have “at least” two ballot initiatives go before the voters in 2026.
“Whatever adjustments we need to make on this ballot initiative, we’ll apply to the other one … and whatever else we decide to do,” he said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
