(Lander, WY) – Local residents had a chance to weigh in on Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s recent letters about state- and county-level election districts in Fremont County during a legislative committee meeting last week in Lander.
The letters – which Gray sent to Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and the Fremont County Commission – call for an “examination” of those district boundaries in Fremont County to determine whether they comply with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in a case called Louisiana v. Callais, Gray told the Wyoming Legislature’s Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee on Friday.
That case involved a majority-minority Congressional district in Louisiana that the Supreme Court determined was “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” according to a report from Legislative Service Office Staff Attorney Josh Anderson.
“The Supreme Court … found that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create that majority-minority district,” Anderson told the committee last week. “The Court stated that Section 2 imposes liability only when the evidence supports a strong inference that the state intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.”
‘Blatant violation’
Gray called Callais a “landmark decision” that made it “very clear” that “drawing districts based on race is squarely unconstitutional (and) a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment.”
That means Fremont County’s current commission districts – which were created after “a series of decisions (that) had to do with the Voting Rights Act” – may be “in violation” of the new Supreme Court ruling and the U.S. Constitution, Gray said, explaining that “the impetus” for the creation of districts in Fremont County “was all driven by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act – sections that were totally changed, in terms of its interpretation, with Louisiana v. Callais.”
Gray said a “similar” situation exists with regard to Wyoming House District 33, which covers the Wind River Reservation.
“The Legislature gave consideration to race in drawing House District 33,” Gray said. “I believe (that) should be re-examined … on whether it was in violation of Louisiana v. Callais.”
‘Separate political entity’
Both Gordon and the Fremont County Commission have forwarded Gray’s letters to the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office for further review, Wyoming Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said during last week’s meeting – but that didn’t stop Corporations Committee member Wyoming Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, from offering his own “very initial” analysis of the situation, pointing out that the majority-minority districts in question represent a “Native American population” that is considered a “separate political entity,” rather than a race.
“Would there be a separate argument outside of the race-based analysis for, say, the tribes as a political entity having their own representation?” Boner asked.
During public comment, former Wyoming lawmaker Mark Harris indicated that the answer to Boner’s question was, “yes.”
“Both Congress and the courts have established that sovereign tribal nations are not a race,” Harris said. “(So) suggestions that the makeup of this district is based on race is wrong.”
Instead, he said, the district “represents a community of interest.”
“The Wind River Reservation is a community of interest,” Harris said. “I live on the reservation. I have family that lives on the reservation. Anything that affects the reservation affects me, and I am not an enrolled tribal member. So it is not based on race and never was.”
Lander resident John Brown said he has had “real difficulty” with the argument that HD 33 was created based on race, too.
“I do not live on the reservation, but I do live in HD 33 – I live in Red Canyon,” he said. “I have never thought that I was not represented because I was a white guy south of Lander. So I categorically deny that this was (a) race thing. It’s not.”
Brown also said he was “offended” by the idea that the local Commission districts were created “based solely on race.”
“I don’t think that’s the case,” he said, referring to Wyoming Statute 18-3-501, which “allows a county to establish district lines based on geographic, economic, and social characteristics.”
In Fremont County, he said there are “differences” between off-reservation and on-reservation communities, including “economic health, healthcare, cultural, and social differences.”
It was those differences that “supported the … determination of (the) district lines,” Brown said, “so the commission district is not based on race.”
Former Fremont County Commissioner Doug Thompson disagreed with Brown’s assessment, however.
“It was based on race,” Thompson countered. “I’m not going to say race only – there was plenty of window dressing put in there. But it was race-based. … The complaint (was) that a Native American tribal member could not get elected in this county.”
Now, with Commission districts in place, Eastern Shoshone Business Council Member Clinton Glick pointed out that only one Native American is likely to be elected to the Fremont County Commission at a time.
“I often thought that that might be a limitation (for) tribal members,” he said, noting that “the majority of Fremont County is probably the reservation.” “I’d like to just leave the House District the way it is, (but) county commissioners, maybe not so much.”
Northern Arapaho Business Council Member Jesse Crispin agreed with Glick’s assessment of the local political boundaries, offering his own estimate that the Wind River Reservation “takes up 70 percent of Fremont County.”
“(The) majority of it is Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho,” Crispin said. “(So) if it starts to be to the point where it’s going to be redistricting … then we would want more representation.”
Regardless, Crispin referred to a recent statement from the Northern Arapaho Tribe opposing the idea of redistricting based on Gray’s recent letters. (Note: The Eastern Shoshone Business Council also released a similar statement.)
“Gray (is) seeking to dismantle voting districts in Fremont County that have allowed Native people to finally achieve meaningful representation in local government,” the letter states. “(His) proposal to eliminate district-based representation in Fremont County is a direct attack on Native voting strength and threatens to silence the voices of the original inhabitants of Wyoming.”
Northern Arapaho Tribal Member and local MMIR 307 organizer Nicole Wagon shared similar sentiments when she addressed the committee this week, highlighting the importance of Native American representation in Wyoming.
“House District 33 and the districts that serve the Wind River communities represent far more than lines on a map,” Wagon said. “They represent shared histories, shared lands, sovereign tribal nations, and communities whose voices have historically struggled to be heard in spaces where decisions impacting our future are made. These districts were created to help ensure that native voices were not erased or diluted and that our communities would have meaningful representation.”
Drawing on her work with MMIR 307, Wagon said: “We know what happens when native communities are ignored, because we live with those realities every day.”
“As people working within the MMIR 307 movement, we understand that Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives is just not just a crisis – it is a painful reminder of what can happen when native lives and voices are treated as invisible,” she said. “Representation matters because our people matter.”
‘Follow the constitution’
When it was her turn to speak to the committee, Lander resident Karen Wetzel expressed her view that “peoples’ opinions aren’t as important (as) following the law.”
“We need to follow the constitution,” she said. “Fremont County and District 33 should weigh their options, (and) Secretary Gray was correct to bring up the question.”
Debra East, another Lander resident, questioned the timing of Gray’s letters, though, noting that they were distributed “just before” the primary election season in Wyoming.
“I’m concerned, in that this was very precipitous on the part of the chief elections officer right at the verge of an election,” East said. “I’d like to know why he chose this time and such haste, because there were no requirements (in Callais) to make a change.”
After the public comment period closed, Gray addressed the committee again, emphasizing that his letters merely called for an examination of the district maps in Fremont County to determine whether they comply with the Supreme Court decision.
“That’s the bottom line,” he said. “That examination, I believe, needs to occur, and I don’t think we should wait for a lawsuit to engage (in) that examination.”
The Corporations Committee didn’t take any action on the issue last week, but they did agree to revisit the topic at their next meeting, which is scheduled for Sept. 10-11.
“There might be new developments by that time,” Case said, advising the committee to “think about this, weigh it, (and get) lots of public input” on the issue before considering it further.