HJ 4: Initiative and Referendum Requirements
2007 General Session

Sponsor: Rep. Kermit Brown (R-H14, Laramie); co-sponsors Reps. Edward Buchanan (R-H4, Torrington), Roy Cohee (R-H35, Casper), Keith Gingery (R-H23, Jackson), Tom Lubnau (R-H31, Gillette), Monte Olsen (R-H22, Daniel), Colin Simpson (R-H24, Cody) and Sens. Phil Nicholas (R-S10, Laramie), Tony Ross (R-S4, Cheyenne), Bill Vasey (D-S11, Rawlins), Michael Von Flatern (R-S24, Gillette)

HJ 4 proposed an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution to modify the signature requirement for a petition for an initiative or referendum to be placed on the ballot.

Currently, a petition must be signed by at least 15% of the qualified voters in at least two-thirds of the counties of Wyoming, as determined by those who voted in the last general election. The proposed amendment would have changed the requirement to at least 15% of the qualified voters in at least two-thirds of the state’s senate districts.

To pass a resolution to amend the Constitution, at least two-thirds of the members of the House and Senate, voting separately, must approve the identical resolution. Then, the resolution would be placed on the next general election ballot, where it must be passed by a majority of the voters who vote in that election to be adopted as a part of the Constitution.

The current petition signature requirements are generally thought to be unconstitutional, because the county distribution requirement is in conflict with the constitutional requirement of equal representation (counties have different sized populations, so county representation gives more weight to individual citizens in less populated counties). Because senate districts are distributed based on population, some proponents thought that signature requirements based on senate districts would offer more equal representation.

Some opponents of HJ 4, including the ESPC, believed the signature requirements were still too high to provide a reasonable opportunity for volunteer petition efforts to succeed, and that only paid petitions efforts (those that pay signature gatherers) would likely succeed. Opponents were also concerned that having a distribution requirement based on senate districts would still be unconstitutional, because of the difference in population between senate districts across the state.

The House passed HJ 4 on third reading (final passage), 43-17. The Senate Judicial Committee passed the bill, 4-1, with Senator Kathryn Sessions (D-S7, Cheyenne) voting NO. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed HJ 4, 3-2, with Senators Curt Meier (R-S3, LaGrange) and Charles Townsend (R-S1, Osage) voting against the bill. It was placed on general file in the Senate, but was not scheduled for a floor vote before the deadline.

The votes listed below are the House third reading (final passage) votes. A YES vote means the legislator wanted to change the signature requirement for a petition for an initiative or referendum to be placed on the Wyoming ballot as described above. A NO vote means the legislator did not want to make the changes proposed in this resolution.

INTRODUCED