Dan Laursen

The population of the southern part of the Big Horn Basin shrank over the past decade while most of the state grew, which has raised the spectre of the Basin losing a couple of its seats in the Wyoming Legislature.

However, local lawmakers have been determined to keep six House and three Senate districts within Park, Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs counties. On Tuesday evening in Powell, they’ll present their plan for preserving the nine seats and take public input. The meeting is set to run from 6-8 p.m. at Heart Mountain Hall at the Park County Fairgrounds.

“We’re going to try to fight for this, I think,” said Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell.

Following the release of each census, legislatures go through a process called redistricting, in which they split their states up into different districts that are represented by senators and representatives. Legislatures generally try to craft plans in which the largest district has no more than 10% more people than the smallest one, as the U.S. Supreme Court has held that such plans are presumed to comply with “one person, one vote” Constitutional principles. Districts are typically allowed to deviate by no more than 5% from the ideal population, and in Wyoming’s case, that’s 9,614 people per House district and 19,228 per Senate district.

However, five of the Big Horn Basin’s nine districts are currently more than 5% below those ideal marks. While Park County grew by about 5% between 2010 and 2020, the census data shows places like Thermopolis and Worland lost significant chunks of their population, causing the four-county region to effectively remain flat.

That’s created a problem, as the region now stands to be overrepresented in the Legislature when compared to other parts of the state. But given the geography of the Big Horn Basin, there’s also no easy way to redraw the districts and pull in more residents to get within the 5% deviation.

“We’re in a unique conundrum,” said First Deputy Park County Clerk Hans Odde, who’s been assisting local lawmakers with drawing up possible scenarios.

For now, the area’s representatives and senators have come up with a proposal that would keep nine seats based in Park, Big Horn, Hot Springs and Washakie counties. The plan mostly involves some shuffling amid the Basin. For instance, the Willwood area south of Powell would shift from House District 50 (currently served by Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody) and join Garland, Frannie, and Deaver to House District 26 (Rep. Jamie Flitner, R-Greybull). Other rural Powell residents would shift from House District 25 (represented by Laursen) to either HD 26 or HD 50.

However, the proposal crafted by the Basin’s lawmakers would ultimately create districts that are as much as 6.26% below the ideal population.

“The Big Horn Basin has just lost enough population that, if we’re to keep six representatives and three senators …, we’re going to have to have a little leeway,” said Odde.

Other options for redrawing the legislative districts create challenges of their own, he said.

In 2012, lawmakers wound up having to extend House District 28 to encompass a broad area that stretches from Meeteetse, Basin and Thermopolis all the way down to Shoshoni and Lysite in Fremont County.

Taking more residents from Fremont County into Big Horn Basin-based districts would likely run into resistance from officials and citizens there, Odde said, while giving back those areas would leave the Basin even shorter on people. That, he said, would likely lead to about 3,000 Thermopolis residents being drawn into Fremont County-based districts — which would force those southern districts to readjust so they didn’t have too many people.

“You squeeze the balloon at one end, and it comes out at the other end,” he said.

Meanwhile, absorbing the southern portion of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park wouldn’t yield enough people, Odde said, and going further south into Alta likely wouldn’t be palatable to Teton County residents.

The deputy clerk also looked at expanding a district over the Bighorn Mountains to absorb Ranchester in Sheridan County, but, besides likely facing opposition from residents in that area, it would require other districts in the Basin to be redrawn.

“It really doesn’t help us at all,” he said.

Lawmakers could also choose to either shrink or expand the 60-person House and 30-person Senate. In a summer presentation, the Legislative Service Office gave an example in which the Wyoming Legislature would drop to 59 senators and 29 representatives — with the two positions eliminated from the Big Horn Basin. However, that would make the four-county region the least-represented area in the state and way off from the 5% deviation for the Senate seats.

While the local lawmakers’ plans also goes beyond that mark, Laursen thinks it “has a good chance” of winning approval from the full Legislature.

“It’s the best we can get,” he said.

Following the last census, state legislatures generally kept their districts within the plus or minus 5%, for no more than a 10% deviation, according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, the organization found that five states exceeded those deviations: Hawaii (44.2%), Vermont (18.8%), Ohio (16.4%), Kentucky 11.6% and Ohio 16.4%.

“I think that if the rural parts of the state stick together,” Laursen said, “that minus 6 [percent] will be OK.”

Assuming they find public support for their plan, the Big Horn Basin lawmakers’ next step will be to try convincing the Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee, which is drafting a statewide plan to present to the full body. Committee members have been holding informal work sessions around Wyoming since September and will formally convene in Cheyenne on Dec. 1-3.

In addition to Tuesday night’s meeting in Powell, Big Horn Basin lawmakers have scheduled a Thursday meeting in Worland.