Wyoming
State BoundariesDrawn by legislature
Governor's PartyRepublican
Legislative PartyRepublican

Scored Maps from the Redistricting Report Card

Communities of Interest

Check out Communities of Interest collected in this state on Representable

Learn about Communities of Interest in this state

Census-related Redistricting Timeline Delays

State Legislative

Alert:
Low

Process

State Legislature

Wyoming's state legislative and congressional district lines are drawn by the Legislature as an ordinary statute, and are subject to the Governor's veto. The Legislature can override vetoes with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. Wyoming has only one at-large congressional district, so there is no congressional redistricting.

Criteria

In addition to the federal requirements of one person, one vote and the Voting Rights Act, Wyoming’s state constitution (Art. III § 49) requires that state legislative districts be contiguous, compact, and avoid county splits. In 2011, the Legislature adopted redistricting principles that further require that districts reflect communities of interest and “avoid diluting voting power of minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act.”

Public Input

While Wyoming law does not require public hearings, the legislative committee responsible for redistricting held hearings across the state in the summer of 2011. The Legislature also accepted public comment on its website. It is likely that there will be similar opportunities for public input in 2021.

2011 Cycle

In 2011, some people raised concerns that legislators were drawing lines that incorporated more rural land into urban districts in order to protect influential incumbents. They also criticized prison gerrymandering, or the practice of counting prisoners as residents of the districts where their prisons are located, as opposed to being counted as residents of their home address. Some legislators involved in the process acknowledged their shortcomings in previous redistricting cycles.

Issues

Pitfalls

Republicans currently have supermajorities in both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature, meaning they could override a reformist governor's veto. This could mean single-party control of the redistricting process, which increases the risk of partisan gerrymandering.

Actions

In 2021, participate in the public input process.

  • Obtain Wyoming redistricting data from OpenPrecincts.
  • Start to plan out what defines your community – whether it’s a shared economic interest, school districts, or other social or other cultural, historical, or economic interests – and how that can be represented on a map. This will come in handy once the Legislature starts collecting feedback.
  • Use software tools such as Dave's Redistricting App and Districtr to draw district maps showing either (a) what a fair map would look like, or (b) where the community you believe should be better represented is located.

Read the Common Cause Activist Handbook on Redistricting Reform to learn about what reforms have been successful in the past, and what steps to take to enact reform in the future. Wyoming has a ballot initiative process, offering a direct pathway for citizens to create change.

Contacts

League of Women Voters of Wyoming

Sources

All About Redistricting

NCSL

Ballotpedia