History
Wyoming’s initiative and referendum pioneer was State Rep. L. C.
Tidball of Sheridan. In the early 1890s Tidball was one of the first state
legislators in the nation - possibly the very first - to introduce a bill to
amend a state constitution to provide for statewide I&R.
The Wyoming legislature waited 19 years before finally taking
favorable action on an I&R bill in 1912, after all the surrounding states had
already put I&R into their constitutions. It was favored by a six to one
margin of the voters who cast ballots on its ratification. It still failed to take
effect, however, because Wyoming constitutional amendments required
ratification by a “supermajority” of all the voters casting ballots in the
election, which made blank ballots count as “no” votes. By this standard,
the I&R amendment narrowly failed.
Finally, in 1968, Wyoming’s legislature passed an I&R amendment, and
it won voter ratification. But the procedures, specified by the legislature,
included the most difficult petition requirement for initiatives of any state
law in the nation: 15 percent of the number of ballots cast in the
preceding gubernatorial election. And it did not allow voters to propose
or vote on initiative constitutional amendments at all.
Though several attempts were made, only one initiative qualified for
the ballot in 20 years: a proposed law, titled “In-stream Flows,” that would
allow the state’s fish and game department to claim water rights on
behalf of fish and wildlife, so that future development - and particularly
energy projects like a proposed water-guzzling coal slurry pipeline - would
not drain essential water sources. The backers’ first petition drive, in 1981,
fell 1,000 names short, and they were forced to start again. By early 1986
they had finally qualified their measure for the November 1986 ballot. The
legislature enacted it in March 1986, making a citizen vote on the
measure unnecessary.
In 1992, the first statewide initiative qualified for the ballot. It was an
initiative to ban triple trailers from state highways – it passed
overwhelmingly. That same year, two other initiatives qualified for the
ballot – a term limits measure and an initiative that would regulate
railroads and hazardous materials. They both passed. Since 1992, only
three other initiatives have made the ballot. The reason for the low
number is that the initiative process in Wyoming ranks as one of the most
difficult in the country. Attempts by pro-initiative legislators in 2002 to try
and lessen the restrictions on the initiative process went nowhere.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.