On May 2, the Wyoming Secretary of State announced that the Country Party petition has enough valid signatures. The Secretary of State put out this press release, which says that having six parties on the ballot this year is a Wyoming record.

The press release is wrong. In 1936 Wyoming also had six parties on the ballot: Democratic, Republican, Union, Socialist, Communist, and Prohibition. However, the 2012 election has the highest number of ballot-qualified parties Wyoming has ever had. The 1936 minor parties appeared on the November ballot but they weren’t ballot-qualified; they didn’t meet the Wyoming definition of “party.” Back in 1936, unqualified parties could list their nominees on the general election ballot, with the party label, if they submitted 100 signatures.