Fremont County delays candidate registrations

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The Fremont County Clerk's Office announced Thursday it doesn't plan to include county commission candidates on the Aug. 17 primary election ballot.

Fremont County's election system was disrupted last week when U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne ruled the county's practice of holding at-large elections for commissioners diluted the American Indian vote and violated the Voting Rights Act. The judge ordered the county to adopt a district voting system.

County Clerk Julie A. Freese said Thursday there's no way the county could follow Johnson's order – which calls for him to approve a district voting plan on Aug. 13 – and have commissioners on the ballot just a few days later.

Freese said her office won't accept commissioner candidate filings until districts are established. State law specifies that commission candidates may file with the county clerk from May 13-28.

“The state statute is out the window at this point,” Freese said. “We'd be dealing with the ruling, and we'd be dealing with whatever we might come up with for a plan as required in the ruling.”

Johnson set a June 30 deadline for Fremont County to submit a plan mapping out separate districts for its five commissioners. He ordered the ACLU, which represents the five American Indians who challenged the county's at-large system, to respond to the plan before the Aug. 13 hearing.

Fremont County Attorney Brian Varn and ACLU lawyer Laughlin McDonald said they're negotiating over possible voting district boundaries. They're also talking about how to handle the two incumbent county commissioners who were elected at-large whose terms aren't up at the end of this year.

McDonald said the ACLU already submitted a proposed voting district map to Johnson to prove its case that American Indians in Fremont County make up a geographically compact bloc deserving their own representation. The county holds most of the Wind River Indian Reservation, home to both the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.

“I would hope that elections would be held at the time of the regular general election, so there wouldn't be any delay in implementing a remedy,” McDonald said.

Varn said the county commission still hasn't decided whether it will appeal Johnson's ruling.

“I think, from the commissioner's point of view, all options are on the table, from appeal to negotiation,” Varn said. However, he said he doubts the issue could be resolved fast enough to have commission candidates on the Aug. 17 ballot.

“My personal opinion is that in the elections of the commissioners, it's going to run a parallel but delayed course from the regular election,” Varn said. “How much of a delay, or how much that will be off, I don't know.”

The situation has left would-be commission candidates in limbo.

Pat Hickerson, who lives north of Lander, is vice chairman of the Fremont County Commission. He said he had intended to seek his third term in office this year but in light of Johnson's ruling remains undecided what he will do.

“I will have to wait and see what kind of election we have, whether we have districts or not, before I really decide to run,” Hickerson said. “I signed up to run under the conventional old system, but that system has been stayed by the judge.”