House passes redistricting plan

Weston County will remain split with two house districts representing the county if the plan passed by the Wyoming House of Representatives receives the blessing of the Senate. This redistricting plan also creates two additional house districts and another senate district to represent the state’s constituents. The plan is commonly called the 62-31 plan. 
As previously reported by the News Letter Journal, Weston County representatives have continually fought for the county to remain whole. 
Remaining whole means that the county’s voters would have a representative living in the county, as several individuals noted in their pleas to the joint committee on several occasions.
Redistricting, according to the Legislative Service Office, is the process of redrawing the geographic boundaries of an area from which people are elected as representatives to the Legislature. Under the Wyoming Constitution, the Legislature is required to complete the process before the first budget session following each U.S. census to reflect shifts in population. 
The House passed HB 100, the redistricting bill for Wyoming, on Feb. 18 in a 54-6 vote, with the opposition coming from representatives in Natrona County and the southwest corner of the state, according to Rep. J.D. Williams, R-Lusk. The bill has now been introduced and referred to the Senate Corporations Committee for consideration. 
Williams said the plan approved by the House was amended seven times before it was passed onto the Senate after the third and final reading in the House. 
“The redistricting puzzle is very complicated, and the closer a district is to a state line, the less options one has for adjustments,” Williams said. “House District 1, northern Weston (County) and House District 2, southern Weston (County) are not significantly changed under the accepted plan. A plan that kept HD1 and HD2 status quo allowed neighboring rural districts to stay intact and maximize Wyoming’s rural voice.”
He opined that the “one man, one vote” principle, that governs redistricting, is an affront to rural Wyoming but is readily accepted if not embraced by the more urban areas of the state. 
“This redistricting plan was one that rural Wyoming and urban Wyoming could both support, which separated it from the plans considered previously,” Williams said. 
Now that the House has passed the bill, Williams said, the Senate will now lay out Senate districts, in which two House districts are typically nested within each Senate district. 
Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, reported that the Senate has referred a separate redistricting plan, SF 60, to committee as a backup to the House bill. 
According to Steinmetz, SF 60 does not increase the size of government and continues to use 60 representatives and 30 senators to represent the state’s constituents. 
For more legislative coverage please visit the News Letter Journal website at newslj.com and click on the “statewide” tab. Additional information on all the bills up for consideration this session can be found at wyoleg.gov, and livestreams of the sessions are available on the Wyoming Legislature’s YouTube page.