Voting

Sitting legislators often fight to ensure “redistricting” does not pit them against their colleagues in upcoming elections. But the current election district map that looks headed for the 2022 session will force 16 lawmakers to run against each other if they want to stay in the Legislature. We’ll see who comes forth to ask for squiggly lines to be drawn around their homes to protect their seats.

As “redistricting” proceeds, Wyoming lawmakers have adopted a new draft map that gives outsized influence to rural lawmakers, decreases the number of viable Democratic seats in Albany County, and zig-zags around the homes of some Laramie County legislators in an embarrassing display of gerrymandering.

Lawmakers have drawn voting district lines in Laramie County so that a large bloc of Democrat-leaning neighborhoods are split between five House districts, resulting in an all-GOP Cheyenne delegation. There is also racial gerrymandering splitting the Latino vote.

A key part of redrawing Wyoming’s voting districts is determining where “communities of interest” exist. No one plays a bigger role in that process than your local county clerk.

Every 10 years the Wyoming Legislature redraws the voting map that determines which lawmakers represent which people. On its face, “redistricting” is dull. But it’s a critically important process that often invites creativity—as well as creativity’s relatives, corruption and abuse.