October 19, 2021 |
The Wyoming Legislature may have a full house, literally, when they meet in special session later this month. The House of Representatives is short one member, but all 60 seats are expected to be filled by next week, Matt Obrecht at the Legislative Service Office told Bigfoot 99 Monday.
Representative Hans Hunt, formerly of House District 2, resigned early this month to join U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis’ staff in Washington, D.C. He had represented parts of Weston, Niobrara and Goshen Counties for the last ten years. A rancher by trade who has never lived outside Wyoming, Hunt will serve as agriculture and trade policy advisor to Lummis. His House seat was vacant last week when presiding officers polled lawmakers about holding the special session to consider legislation protecting Wyoming citizens from vaccine mandates related to COVID 19.
The LSO confirmed yesterday that 38 of the 59 remaining house members voted for the session. Obrecht said all 60 seats could be filled as soon as next week.
Bigfoot 99 learned this morning from a source familiar with the process that county commissioners from Goshen, Niobrara and Weston Counties will choose Hunt’s replacement this morning. One of the candidates to replace Hunt is a Saratoga native — Jeremy Williams, son of George and Sue Williams.
Obrecht yesterday also confirmed that 18 of 30 state senators voted for the session in the unofficial electronic vote. The official vote tally will be released late Tuesday or Wednesday. The official tally will be based on paper ballots sent to each lawmaker. Those had to be postmarked by Thursday, October 7th. The LSO was still waiting on the Wyoming mail yesterday.
Obrecht did not indicate whether he thought the official tally would vary from the electronic count. Meanwhile, the Joint Rules and Procedures Committee is supposed to meet this week to hammer out the details of how the special session will operate. It is scheduled to begin on October 26th.
