The disagreement between Secretary of state Chuck Gray (R), and the campaign that is behind the two proposals over signatures needed to qualify for Wyoming’s election in 2024 has turned into a back and forth, with cannabis supporters saying they may consider litigation.
Activists claimed on Thursday that Gray’s office “provided incorrect information regarding the total number required of signatures and the process in which signatures are submitted,” a misunderstanding which “derailed cannabis petitions,” a misunderstanding that “derailed cannabis petitions,” that together would have decriminalized possession of small amounts cannabis and legalized medical marijuana.
In a press statement released on Thursday, supporters of Compassionate Options Wyoming and Wyoming NORML, as well as the Libertarian Party in the state, claimed that “the campaign only needed 29,730 instead of the more than 40,000 signatures originally directed.”
The release states that “under the newly revised rules”, the Wyoming cannabis petitions would qualify for the ballot in 2024 with 36,000 signatures.
Organizers announced the failures of the measures for the first time in March. Wyoming NORML stated at the time, that while campaigners had collected enough signatures to reach statewide thresholds in each initiative, the signatures did not meet a requirement by the state that signatures must represent a certain percentage of voters from two-thirds counties throughout the state.
Apollo Pazell is a campaign consultant with Oquirrh Mountain Strategies, and an advocate of reforms. He said that the dispute centered around how and when Secretary of State’s Office calculated the signature thresholds required to qualify ballot measures.
Pazell stated that they had contacted the company multiple times to try to find out the truth. “We were given the runaround,” he said.
The campaign claims that up until a day after the deadline for signature collection, a website of the state showed a threshold of 41 776 as a requirement to qualify an initiative on the ballot. Pazell stated that “the day after our deadline had passed, they changed the signature requirements to 29,000.”
Gray called the claims lies. Gray accused Pazell in a series text messages sent to Marijuana Moment of “trying” to shift the blame because he didn’t look at the statutes or case laws, which would have clearly stated that the date the final submission is made determines which general election prior will be used to calculate the 15% qualification threshold.
He said, “Our administration did not receive any inquiries from initiative sponsors about the threshold of the initiative before the deadline for filing petitions in march.” “The initiative began collecting petitions 15 months before my election, in September 2021. This is when they should have received notification of the threshold. The election team of the former Buchanan administration would have provided any inaccurate information.
The Wayback Machine archives websites in their past appearances. According to The Wayback Machine’s archive of websites, the page for the Secretary of State on the requirements for signature gathering was updated between November 10, 2022, and February 6, 2023.
Pazell claims that, “in a telephone call with the secretary’s office on 13 January 2023, organizers learned that all submissions had to be made in one submission, and that, if an initiative did not meet the required number of signatures, which, according to the office of Mr. Gray, was 41,776, a similar initiative could be banned for five years.”
Gray, however, told Marijuana Moment that his office had changed the website on December 6, 2022 to reflect the new thresholds. “Contradicting Apollo’s claim,” Gray sent Marijuana Moment a staff email that confirmed that the page “had been updated” that day to reflect the 29,730-signature limit.
The secretary of State said in a text that “this is another false statement by Apollo”. He claimed that “Apollo informed our office that his last conversation with the Secretary of State’s Office was December 2022 which is the month prior to my taking office.”
He said, “The initiative wasn’t submitted, we didn’t receive any inquiry regarding the threshold and Apollo acknowledged that he had received incorrect information from the previous administration.”
Gray said Pazall was involved in the campaign of his opponent during last year’s election for secretary. He said that this was just another political lie.
Pazall said the same thing about Gray: “I believe he’s trying to deflect.”
Bennett Sodeno of Wyoming NORML, the executive director for the organization, emailed its elections division earlier this month to clarify the requirements needed to qualify a measure for the ballot. “When we submitted the two last petitions in 2020, we were informed that we needed to meet the signature threshold for the 2020 elections and had until February 20, 2023 to submit them to the Secretary of State’s Office to qualify for the ballot of 2024. “Was any of this wrong?” he asked. The same office told us in early or late December 2022 that we must submit our petitions by the beginning of the legislative session, or we will be disqualified.
Sodeno said, “We want to make sure we get it right the next time around.”
A staff member replied on Tuesday with three different scenarios for submitting signatures to qualify for ballots in 2024 or 2026. The division apologized for any confusion that you may have encountered in the past. We are a new team of elections, and have conducted a thorough review of the initiative procedure in recent months.
This response seems to be the source of the allegations made by the campaign. The organizers now claim they are “considering [their] political and legal options as a result of this new disclosure, including submitting another initiative or pursuing judicial remedies.”
Marshall Burt said, in a recent statement, that the fight was not yet over. “Patients and Wyoming families collected signatures. No matter how much they resist, this measure will become law.
Sodeno, of Wyoming NORML, said that in March, there was tension between Gray’s Office and organizers over the signature count. “He had his legal staff determine that they could advance the deadline on us by two month, but didn’t inform us. And then he promised one of our members that he wouldn’t care how many we gave in.
The Wyoming House Speaker, Rep. Mark Baker(R), introduced a bipartisan bill last year to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. This would replace the current misdemeanor charges with a fine of $100. But despite the support of top GOP legislators, this legislation was not voted on. Baker explained that there was simply not enough time to devote to the budget in a short legislative session.
In 2021, a bill to legalize cannabis for adult consumption in Wyoming was advanced by a House Committee but did not progress further at the end of the session.
Wyoming’s neighbors Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming were among the states that voters approved ballot measures to legalize marijuana in 2020. However, the latter was overturned and a second attempt last year was rejected.
In a survey released in 2020, found that 54 percent Wyoming residents support allowing adults to “legally possess marijuana for personal consumption.”
Click here to read the full campaign press release:
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Photo by Philip Steffan.
The post Wyoming Marijuana Activism Considers Suing Secretary of State Over ‘Incorrect Ballot Signature Guidance first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
