Fremont County Commission endorses 2 voting plans

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The Fremont County Commission has endorsed two possible plans for the election of county commissioners, but neither of them would satisfy the American Indians who successfully sued the county over its at-large voting system.
U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson ruled this spring that Fremont County's system of holding at-large elections violates federal law by diluting the American Indian vote. The county holds most of the Wind River Indian Reservation, home to both the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.
Johnson gave the county until June 30 to propose a new voting plan. He said it must comply with the law and require “the election of county commissioners in Fremont County by district rather than at-large.”
Fremont County Attorney Brian Varn said Wednesday that the county commission has endorsed two plans the county will present to Johnson by the deadline.
The first plan would designate a single commission district in which American Indians would be the majority while continuing with at-large elections in the rest of the county, Varn said.
The other plan also calls for an American Indian majority district. It would allow at-large election of other commissioners but would require each commissioner to live in a separate district in the county.
Andy Baldwin, a Riverton lawyer representing the Native American plaintiffs who sued the county, said they will carefully consider the county's suggested plans. But he said the plaintiffs would oppose any hybrid plan that calls for a separate district for the Indians with at-large voting for the rest of the county.
“State law allows for counties either to be at large or to have true districts,” Baldwin said. “It doesn't allow for this hybrid that they appear to be proposing. So plaintiffs will continue to oppose this hybrid approach.”
Beyond being foreign to state law, Baldwin said he doesn't see any need for the county to adopt a hybrid system to comply with federal law. He said that leaves the county's reasons for proposing such a system as a mystery to him.
Varn said the commissioners determined that having single-member districts favors the election of incumbents. He said that under the county's at-large system, up to 25 people have run for the county commission at once.
“Two, they felt that a candidate that only has to appeal to a smaller district has less appeal countywide,” Varn said. “So a good moderate candidate that appeals to the entire county, and the entire county getting to vote on, makes for a better candidate overall.”
Varn said Wyoming law endorses at-large voting. He said the commissioners believed it would be overreaching on their part to impose single-member districts on the entire county.
“Nowhere has the judge dictated five single-seat districts. So we are complying with the law,” Varn said.
Fremont County has been represented in the voting rights case by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group based in Denver. The group used the Fremont County case to mount an ultimately unsuccessful challenge to the constitutionality of provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Fremont County officials have said that the uncertainty over how commissioners will be elected this year means that candidates will not be on the ballot for the Aug. 17 primary election. They say it's also possible that it could be necessary to have a separate county commission general election late in the year to get them seated in time to take office in January.