Panel mulls election reform

CASPER — A week after one of the most discussed elections in Wyoming’s history, a panel of lawmakers will consider changes to the state’s voting system.

The Legislature’s Joint Corporations Committee will discuss a ranked-choice voting system and whether to implement special elections if one of the state’s top elected officials departs.

The committee will also consider two other important issues in Wyoming: housing and liquor licenses. The meeting, which is open to the public and will be streamed online, will take place in Casper on Thursday and Friday.

As has become the norm over the last couple of years, the corporations committee will consider election reform legislation. That includes implementing a ranked-choice voting system similar to the one used last week in Alaska’s primary.

Ranked-choice usually work like this: The number of votes a candidate gets are determined by how many residents rank the candidate in the top spot. If no one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, it will trigger the lowest vote-getter to be cut.

Then, on every ballot that had the lowest vote getter ranked first, the No. 2 candidate will move into the No. 1 spot and earns more votes. This process continues until one candidate achieves a majority.

As the bill is currently written, it would permit voters to rank any candidate “without regard to political party affiliation.”

In other words, a voter could rank a Republican first and a Democrat second and not be bound by party.

But the current bill draft will likely be workshopped extensively, said Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne.

For example, it’s possible that a ranked-choice system could exist within partisan primaries, so voters would only be able to rank Democrats or Republicans depending on their registration.

Ranked-choice opponents often point to the recent New York City mayoral race as an example of why Wyoming should not implement it — getting the results took days as opposed to hours.

“I think [favorability for] ranked choice has dimmed a little bit,” Case said.

The committee will also be reviewing a bill that would trigger a special election if there’s a vacancy in some of the state’s elected offices.

As it stands, the state Republican or Democratic central committee (depending on the politician being replaced) is responsible for nominating three candidates. The governor then picks one of those three.

Case suspects the state GOP will lobby against this bill.

“They’ll come down with steel-toed boots,” he said.

In recent years, the state party and a large portion of its central committee has become increasingly hard-line and MAGA-minded, putting the group at odds with more traditional, big tent Republicans.

The central committee passed over Megan Degenfelder when choosing nominees for schools superintendent earlier this year, although she had administrative experience in the Wyoming Department of Education.

Instead, the group nominated three far-right candidates, including the eventual appointee, Brian Schroeder. Voters, however, picked Degenfelder in last week’s primary.

Sen. John Barrasso, who has since been reelected, also first assumed office through the nomination process.

As Wyoming grapples with housing shortages and rising prices, the committee will begin to look at remedies. The committee does not have any bill drafts slated on housing, but the group will review some memos from the Legislative Service Office, including one on housing trust funds.

Housing trust funds are earmarked pools of money for addressing community housing needs, which could include anything from affordable housing developments to home restoration projects.

Wyoming only has one trust fund — located in Jackson. It is one of three states that does not have a state run trust fund.

Zwonitzer said that the committee will mainly be asking questions about housing and listening to stakeholders.

“What is the government’s role? Can we be doing anything and should we be doing anything?” Zwonitzer asked. “A lot of people want action on cheap housing and affordable housing.”

The Legislative Service Office, however, wrote that there may be some constitutional barriers to implementing a state funded housing trust. The Wyoming Constitution currently has “prohibitions against the State or its political subdivisions loaning or giving credit or making donations to people or entities in certain situations, as well as a prohibition against legislative appropriations for charitable or industrial purposes unless the recipient is under the control of the State,” the LSO wrote.

Constitutional amendments are notoriously hard to pass in Wyoming.

“I’m always skeptical of the government getting involved in markets that by and large work pretty darn well,” said Case, who’s a libertarian-leaning Republican and an economist.

The committee will tackle the liquor license landscape in Wyoming this week as well. The focus of the liquor license discussion will likely center around “tavern and entertainment liquor licenses.”

As it stands, venues that serve food and liquor must make at least 60% of the revenue off of food to satisfy the requirements of the liquor license.

The proposed bill would allow venues that don’t serve food — like arcades, for one — to serve alcohol while still collecting 60% of their revenue from the “entertainment” and no more than 40% from alcohol.

“Whether that 40% is the right number, I’m not sure,” Zwonitzer said.

Zwonitzer said he has concerns — and believes others do as well— over how broad the term “entertainment” could be construed. He expects the committee to try to define it in statute.

One of the main pushes behind this bill was the advent of indoor sport simulation venues, like the SandTrap in Casper, where patrons can go play virtual golf.

“What if the other part of our business is not food? What if the other part of our business is video games?” Case explained.

If the tavern and entertainment bill passed, it would join a long list of different types of liquor licenses in the state covering everything from golf courses to airports.

“We just keep marching towards liquor freedom,” Zwonitzer said. “Every session we have another [liquor license bill]. It never ends.”