Wyoming House Passes Bill Making Ballot Access Much More Difficult

On January 30, the Wyoming House passed HB 173. It makes ballot access much worse for independent candidates. Currently they need a petition of 2% of the last U.S. House vote, which in 2026 would be 5,201 signatures. The bill would increase that to 13,003 signatures. Already Wyoming has the nation’s highest percentage for petitions for presidential candidates, if the easier method in each state is used. Wyoming has the nation’s smallest population.

The bill also moves the petition deadline for independent candidates to 81 days before the primary. The 2026 primary is August 18, so that would mean a deadline of May 29, 2026. Existing law says the independent petition is due 70 days before the general election, which is August 25.

The bill also tells qualified minor parties, which nominate by convention, that they must complete their nominations by 81 days before the primary.

The bill would be unconstitutional for several reasons. It violates Anderson v Celebrezze, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that said independent presidential candidates must be given a chance to run later than the spring. Wyoming is in the Tenth circuit, and in 1984 the Tenth Circuit said in Populist Party v Herschler, 746 F 2d 656, that even a June 1 deadline is probably too early. On page 661 it said, “The June 1 deadline (which was the deadline for petitions for new parties) appears to run counter to the views in Anderson and Blomquist which would permit independent parties to organize after the conventions of the major parties.”

The bill would also be unconstitutional for denying equal protection to the qualified minor parties, given that the major parties would still be permitted to choose their nominees as late as August.

All of the bill’s sponsors are Republicans. The bill has 22 House sponsors and four Senate sponsors.


Comments

Wyoming House Passes Bill Making Ballot Access Much More Difficult — 8 Comments

  1. Forgive me, but the article is wrong when it says that people would not be able to run for office after primaries.

    From Ballotpedia, on Wyoming:
    “Each person who requests to have all votes cast for him or her as a write-in candidate counted must file an application for candidacy together with the appropriate filing fee with Wyoming Secretary of State no later than two days after the election in which the person desires to have the write-in votes counted.”

    So, the deadline is two days after the election, not the party primary. It should go without saying that being listed on a ballot is not equivalent to running for office.

  2. Wyoming won’t tally the number of write-ins, even for declared write-in candidates, unless the vote-counting machines indicate a write-in candidate may have been elected.

  3. 9,697 signatures is reasonable and so is May 29. It takes at least that long to allow busy voters time to research the candidates, especially if they are military voters on a submarine.

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