Catch Title: Elections-independent candidate requirements

Sponsor: Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee

Effective Date: Effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law

Bill: https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2026/HB0054

Overview This bill substantively revises the requirements for independent candidates seeking partisan public office in Wyoming . It mandates a sworn statement of non-affiliation, more than doubles the signature threshold for ballot access, and shifts the filing deadline to align with partisan primary filings . The legislation appears designed to standardize the entry timeline for all candidates while significantly increasing the procedural and numerical hurdles for those running outside the major and minor party systems.

Key Provisions

• Sworn Non-Affiliation: Requires independent candidates to swear or affirm they are unaffiliated voters or otherwise not registered with a major or minor political party .
• Significant Threshold Increase: Increases the required number of signatures for statewide, countywide, and district petitions from 2% to 5% of the total votes cast for the relevant office in the last general election.
• Advanced Filing Deadline: Moves the deadline to file a petition from 70 days before the primary to 81 days before the primary election date .
• Restricted Circulation Window: Clarifies that a candidate has no more than 14 days after obtaining petition approval to file the completed petition with the appropriate office .
• Boundary Change Adjustments: For districts with altered boundaries, the 5% signature requirement is based on a calculated value of votes cast for that office in the last general election within the current district lines .

Implications

• Direct Verification Process: Under the proposed framework, the County Clerk will verify a candidate’s unaffiliated status against the Wyoming Registration System at the moment a request to petition is submitted.
• Increased Barriers to Entry: The shift from a 2% to a 5% signature threshold is identified as a significant procedural barrier that, while manageable for county staff to verify, has no known administrative basis other than to limit the number of independent candidates on the ballot.
• Administrative Compression: The 15-day circulation period (1 day for approval plus 14 days for filing) remains extremely tight, leaving candidates very little time to gather a significantly larger volume of signatures .
• Elimination of November Competition: By requiring independent candidates to file at the same time as partisan primary candidates (81 days before the primary), the bill effectively removes the option for late-entry independent runs in the general election.
• Redundant “Sore Loser” Measures: Given that Wyoming law already prohibits primary losers from running as independents in November, this change is viewed as a strategic effort to force all competition into the primary cycle rather than allowing independent alternatives in the general election.
• New District Uncertainty: The bill lacks a clear method for determining signature requirements for entirely new districts where no “last general election” data exists for the specific configuration.