The Weston County commissioners really aren’t bluffing.
Late last month, the commissioners notified the Wyoming Republican Party that they will file two vacant Wyoming Legislature seats.
These seats don’t currently exist, but the Weston commissioners are attempting to create them as part of their belief that since Weston County doesn’t have a dedicated senator or representative solely representing their county, they are unconstitutionally represented. The two seats — one each for the Wyoming House and Senate — would only represent their county.
It’s a bold move to say the least, and one that Weston County Commissioner Garrett Borton, who supports the effort, expects to be challenged in court. He denies that the timing of the push has any connection to the election that’s coming up in a month and asked Cowboy State Daily rhetorically, “when is a good time to adhere to the constitution?”
“This is a problem more or less with people not being represented in Weston County,” Borton said.
Many rural Wyoming counties like Weston, the second-least populated in the state, have argued they’re being disproportionately represented at a state level. Although Weston is fully represented in the Legislature, its representation is made up by two House and two Senate seats that cover sections of the county in addition to parts of a few other counties.
Prior to 1992, the state ran an at-large voting system where legislative districts were broken out by county. This aligns with Article 3, Section 3 of the Wyoming Constitution, which says that each county is entitled to its own senator and representative. But there’s also a footnote in the constitution stemming from a 1991 federal court lawsuit that says the Wyoming Legislature may disregard this stipulation when it redistricts because it’s inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution’s concept of one man one vote.
What Weston County is doing is purposely ignoring that ruling out of a belief that it was unconstitutional.
Challenging this ruling, said Lusk resident J.D. Williams, who won the Republican for House District 2 and will represent Weston if elected in the general election, has been an ongoing eastern Wyoming effort since the time of the ruling 33 years ago.
Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, a Crook County resident who represents parts of Crook, Weston and Campbell counties, said that although he agrees with the commissioners about county representation, he doesn’t support the way they are going about the process.
“I don’t understand how you do it without being illegal about it,” he said.
What Are They Doing?
The Weston County commissioners are following the standard process for filling vacant legislative seats, with the caveat that they themselves are creating the seats they are declaring vacant. By a 3-2 vote at their meeting in April, the commissioners passed a resolution declaring a state Senate and House seat vacant to represent their county, which Borton viewed as a move to uphold the state and U.S. constitutions.
It’s the responsibility of the Legislature to enshrine all redistricting efforts in the state, a process that was most recently updated in 2022.
On Oct. 16, the Weston County Republican Party will nominate three candidates each for the House and Senate seats, which will then be delivered to the commissioners to pick from within five days.
From here, it’s much less clear what could happen, but it’s a likely stage that a lawsuit would be filed by.
“The cool part is, we have the constitution to back us up,” Borton said. “Whoever goes against us will be challenging the constitution.”
Weston County Attorney Michael Stulken declined to comment for this story, but Borton said the attorney is less enthusiastic than the commissioners about fighting a potential case.
Even if it's rejected in court, Williams said the push for county representation won’t be going away and is an issue that impacts the whole state.
“In some ways their delivery is a little bit abrasive but there’s some pretty sharp guys with some great points on this,” he said.
Countless Questions
Driskill said the commissioners’ effort raises numerous questions such as whether his seat is being declared vacant, will he no longer represent Weston, and if so, what happens to the oath he swore to represent the county. In the 2022 primary and general elections, a total of 1,274 votes were cast for Driskill in Weston County.
“It probably throws the entire state of who's representing Weston into question,” Driskill said. “It leaves people serving in limbo.”
Another issue is what happens to the people selected by the county commission when they go to take office.
If, in the unlikely circumstance that the two people selected by the commissioners to represent the county in the Legislature aren’t challenged in court, other questions remain about whether the Legislative Service Office (LSO) will recognize them as legislators and offer them desks for the 2025 legislative session. It would be up to LSO and Secretary of State Chuck Gray to decide whether to recognize the entirely new districts. Gray was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.
If they are successful, Borton believes other counties will follow suit with similar efforts.
Williams said he worries that if county representation is restored, it will create many more legislative seats than currently exists, which he vehemently opposes.
“I’m not interested in growing government,” he said. “I’m afraid we’ll win the battle but lose the war,” he said.
Borton said in conversations with Gray and Wyoming GOP Chair Frank Eathorne, both supported the effort but told him to delay taking steps to initiate it until after the primary election.
Driskill believes the Weston effort is politically motivated and doubts it’s supported by the majority of people in Weston County, whom he believes will now become less trusting in government as a result of the effort. He wishes the commissioners would have worked with the Legislature or pursued a constitutional amendment rather than preemptively circumventing the law.
“You can’t just take a court ruling and shred it,” Driskill said. “Just because you’re elected doesn’t mean you get to break the law.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
