2010 Wyoming Statutes
Title 22 - Elections
Chapter 1 - Wyoming Election Code

CHAPTER 1 - WYOMING ELECTION CODE

 

22-1-101. Citation.

 

This act is cited as the Wyoming Election Code of 1973, as amended.

 

22-1-102. Definitions.

 

(a) The definitions contained in this chapter apply to words and phrases used in this Election Code and govern the construction of those words and phrases unless they are specifically modified by the context in which they appear. As used in this Election Code:

 

(i) "Automatic tabulating equipment" means apparatus that automatically examines and counts votes recorded on paper ballots or ballot cards and tabulates the results;

 

(ii) "Ballot" means the cardboard, paper or other material upon which a voter marks his votes;

 

(iii) "Ballot card" means a ballot that can be counted using automatic tabulating equipment;

 

(iv) "Ballot label" means the cards, papers, booklet, pages, or other materials that contain the names of offices and candidates and statements of ballot propositions to be voted on and which are used in conjunction with ballot cards;

 

(v) "Ballot proposition" is any question or measure submitted to a vote of the people of the state, a subdivision thereof, county, district, city or town, and includes a constitutional amendment, initiative, referendum, bond measure, or any other question or measure required to be approved by a vote of the people;

 

(vi) "Bond" means any bond, note, certificate of indebtedness, coupon, or other obligation for the payment of money, issued by any political subdivision, including any bond payable from taxes, revenues or other sources;

 

(vii) "Candidate's campaign committee" means every group of two (2) or more persons who join together for the purpose of raising, collecting or expending money to be used in the aid of the election of a specific candidate for public office. If more than one (1) committee forms to support the candidate, the candidate shall designate which committee shall be his or her principal campaign committee;

 

(viii) "Chief judge" means the person selected to be responsible for the security of ballot envelopes and voter ballots. The chief judge shall serve as the primary contact at the polls to the county clerk;

 

(ix) "City clerk" means a clerk of a municipality;

 

(x) "Convention" is an organized assemblage of electors or delegates representing a political party;

 

(xi) "Counting center" is the location or locations designated by the county clerk for the automatic tabulating and counting of ballots;

 

(xii) "County chairman" means the county chairman of a political party or the state chairman if the party has no chairman for the particular county;

 

(xiii) "Election," when used without qualifying adjectives, means all elections participated in by the voters of a city, town, county, district or the state;

 

(xiv) "Electronic voting system" is a system employing an electronic voting device in conjunction with ballot labels, paper ballots or ballot cards, or other system of secret voting and automatic tabulating equipment for the recording, tabulating and counting of votes in an election;

 

(xv) "Envelope" means any type of container used to contain or hold election documents;

 

(xvi) "Independent candidate" is a person who is running for nomination or election to a public office but who does not represent a political party;

 

(xvii) "Major political party" means a political organization whose candidate for any one (1) of the offices of the United States house of representatives, governor or secretary of state, received not less than ten percent (10%) of the total votes cast for that office in the most recent general election;

 

(xviii) "Minor political party" means a political organization whose candidate for any one (1) of the offices of the United States house of representatives, governor or secretary of state, received not less than two percent (2%) nor more than ten percent (10%) of the total votes cast for that office in the most recent general election;

 

(xix) "Municipality" includes a first class city as defined by W.S. 15-1-101(a)(iv) and a town as defined by W.S. 15-1-101(a)(xiv);

 

(xx) "Political action committee" means any group of two (2) or more persons organized and associated for the purpose of raising, collecting or spending money for use in the aid of, or otherwise influencing or attempting to influence, directly or indirectly, the election or defeat of candidates for public office, candidate's committees, or political parties, for support of or opposition to any initiative or referendum petition drive or for the adoption or defeat of any ballot proposition;

 

(xxi) "Political subdivision" includes any county, city, town, school district, community college district, hospital district, water conservancy district, cemetery district, fire protection district, or any other political subdivision of the state constituting a body corporate, whether incorporated under general act, special charter, or otherwise;

 

(xxii) "Pollbook" is a book used in a precinct on election day containing oaths of election officials, tally sheets, the poll list, and other information specified by law;

 

(xxiii) "Poll list" is the list of registered voters as compiled by the clerk for use by election judges at the polls. The poll list shall:

 

(A) Include the names and residence addresses of electors registered in the precinct;

 

(B) Indicate the precinct and various districts in which each elector resides;

 

(C) Indicate political party affiliation of the electors, if any;

 

(D) Indicate which electors have registered by mail and must show identification;

 

(E) Indicate which electors have submitted absentee ballots in the election prior to the printing of the poll list;

 

(F) Provide for the notation of:

 

(I) A sequential number for each elector voting at the polls;

 

(II) Electors who cast provisional ballots;

 

(III) Electors who cast absentee ballots if the absentee ballots are processed and counted at the polls;

 

(IV) Electors who change political party affiliation at the polls.

 

(G) Provide for the recording of the same information for electors who register at the polls;

 

(H) Provide other space as required for election management purposes.

 

(xxiv) "Poll watcher" means a person certified by the county chairman of a political party to observe voter turn out and registration. A "poll watcher" is not an election official;

 

(xxv) "Provisional party" means a political organization which has filed a legally valid petition as provided under article 4 of chapter 4 of this code. The filing of a legally valid petition entitles the provisional party to participate in the next general election. If the provisional party's candidate for any one (1) of the offices of the United States house of representatives, governor or secretary of state, receives not less than two percent (2%) of the total votes cast for that office in that election, the provisional party does not lose party status;

 

(xxvi) "Qualified elector" includes every citizen of the United States who is a bona fide resident of Wyoming, has registered to vote and will be at least eighteen (18) years of age on the day of the election at which he may offer to vote. No person is a qualified elector who is a currently adjudicated mentally incompetent person, or who has been convicted of a felony and his civil or voting rights have not been restored. A literacy test shall not be imposed as a condition to voting in any election;

 

(xxvii) "Registration" is the entry and verification of the name and voter information of a qualified elector on the official registry list, as provided in W.S. 22-3-104(f) and 22-3-108;

 

(xxviii) "Registry agent" is a county clerk, his deputies, a tribal clerk, his deputies, a city clerk, his deputies, and an election judge during any election specified in W.S. 22-2-101(a)(i) through (viii);

 

(xxix) "Registry list" is the list by precinct of the names, addresses, party affiliations and precinct and district numbers of the registered electors in the county prepared by the secretary of state or county clerks for distribution as provided in W.S. 22-2-113;

 

(xxx) "Residence" is the place of a person's actual habitation. The construction of this term shall be governed by the following rules:

 

(A) Residence is the place where a person has a current habitation and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning;

 

(B) A person shall not gain or lose residence merely by reason of his presence or absence while:

 

(I) Employed in the service of the United States or of this state; or

 

(II) A student at an institution of learning; or

 

(III) Kept at a hospital or other institution; or

 

(IV) Stationed at or residing on a military reservation or installation or at a transient camp maintained for relief purposes by the government of the United States in this state. No person shall be excluded as a voter solely because of his residence on a federal enclave within the state. This factor shall be considered with all others in the determination of the person's residence within the state for voting purposes.

 

(C) A person shall not lose his residence by leaving his home to go to another state, another district of this state, or to another country for temporary purposes, with the intent of returning, if he has not registered in the other state, district or country;

 

(D) A person shall not gain residence in a county if he enters it without the intent of making it his current actual residence;

 

(E) If a person removes to another state with the intent of making it his residence, he loses his residence in Wyoming; except that in a general election year, if his registration is valid in Wyoming when he leaves this state and he is unable to qualify under the laws of his new state of residence to vote at the primary or general election, he shall be deemed to have retained residence in Wyoming for purposes of voting by absentee ballot in the primary or general election;

 

(F) A person who takes up or continues his abode at a place other than where his family resides, shall be a resident of the place where he actually abides.

 

(xxxi) "Square" for purposes of chapter 6 of this code shall include a box, circle, oval, arrow or other distinctive area used to designate the area for casting a vote;

 

(xxxii) "Tally sheet" means the document used to tabulate hand counted paper ballots;

 

(xxxiii) "Valid write-in candidate" means a candidate who has qualified as a write-in candidate by following the procedures and requirements of W.S. 22-5-501;

 

(xxxiv) "Voting device" means:

 

(A) Repealed By Laws 2008, Ch. 115, 2.

 

(B) A device for marking the ballots with ink or another substance; or

 

(C) Any other method for recording votes on ballots so that the ballot may be tabulated by means of automatic tabulating equipment.

 

(xxxv) "Write-in vote" is a vote cast for a person whose name does not otherwise appear on the official ballot as a candidate for the office for which his name is written in by the voter;

 

(xxxvi) "Federal office" means the offices of president and vice-president of the United States, United States senator and representative in congress;

 

(xxxvii) "Immediate family" means a spouse, parent, sibling, child or other person living in the individual's household;

 

(xxxviii) "Election assistance" does not include the posting of campaign signs or the availability of campaign materials;

 

(xxxix) "Acceptable identification" means one (1) of the identification documents or other proof of identity as specified by rule of the secretary of state as adequate proof of the identity of a voter;

 

(xl) "Canvass" means the audit function that culminates in the final certification of official election returns;

 

(xli) "Provisional ballot" means a ballot provided to a voter whose right to register or to vote cannot be determined at the polls or verified at the election office, in order to allow the voter to cast a ballot at the polls which shall be counted only if the ballot is determined to be a valid ballot as provided in this Election Code;

 

(xlii) "Recount" is the processing of ballots through the tabulation system for an additional time or times, conducted for the specific purpose of counting votes again in any specific race, based upon the criteria of W.S. 22-16-109 or 22-16-111;

 

(xliii) "Retabulation" is the process of running ballots back through the tabulation system for an additional time or times for the express purpose of reconciling the count;

 

(xliv) "Tribal clerk" means an official designated by the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and an official designated by the Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation acting pursuant to a cooperative agreement entered into by a county and the respective tribe pursuant to W.S. 16-1-101, which agreement provides for the official to provide services as a registry agent under the direct supervision and control of the county clerk;

 

(xlv) "Print" means to write in letters and reproduce whether on paper or other medium by mechanical, magnetic or electrical process;

 

(xlvi) "Voter registration system" means the single, uniform, official, interactive, computerized, statewide voter registration system containing the registration information of every legally registered elector in the state.