Last verified: May 2026
Wyoming’s Ballot-Initiative Process
Wyoming’s constitution and Wyo. Stat. ch. 22-24 govern ballot initiatives. To qualify a statutory initiative for the ballot, organizers must collect signatures equal to 15% of the votes cast in the prior gubernatorial election, and meet that 15% threshold in at least two-thirds of Wyoming’s 23 counties (16 counties). The dual statewide-plus-county-distribution requirement is unusual and is, per Ballotpedia, the most stringent ballot-qualification rule in the United States.
The 2024 Petitions
Two separate ballot petitions targeted the November 2024 ballot:
- Wyoming Patient Cannabis Act — would have established a state medical-cannabis program with patient registration, licensed dispensaries, and qualifying-condition framework.
- Decriminalization measure — would have reduced personal-use possession penalties and removed criminal-record consequences for low-level offenses.
The Signature Gathering
By the March 2023 deadline, organizers submitted:
- 48,687 raw signatures for the Wyoming Patient Cannabis Act — comfortably above the statewide threshold.
- 47,426 raw signatures for the decriminalization measure — also above the statewide threshold.
The statewide totals would have qualified the measures in any state without the 16-of-23-counties geographic requirement.
The Geographic-Distribution Failure
When the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office completed signature verification in 2023, the geographic-distribution check revealed that organizers had hit the 15% threshold in only 14 counties — two short of the required 16. The most-rural and lowest-population counties (especially those with conservative voting patterns and limited canvasser access) fell short. Both petitions failed to qualify for the ballot.
The Reform Coalition Response
Bennett Sondeno, director of Wyoming NORML and based in Cody, told media after the failure: organizers will "continue to work with legislators." The campaign acknowledged that without legislative support for ballot-process reform or substantive policy change, the geographic-distribution barrier will remain a structural obstacle. Apollo Pazell served as chief strategist for the campaign; Carrie Satterwhite (Park County) was a principal organizer.
Wyoming’s Geographic Threshold in Comparative Context
Per Ballotpedia analysis, Wyoming’s 15%-in-two-thirds-of-counties requirement is the most stringent geographic-distribution ballot rule in the United States. Comparable rules:
- Wyoming: 15% in 2/3 of counties (16 of 23).
- Massachusetts: no more than 25% from any one county.
- Mississippi: 1/5 from each of 5 congressional districts (currently inoperative; struck down 2021).
- Nebraska: 5% in 38 of 93 counties.
- Most states: statewide signature total only, no geographic distribution.
Wyoming’s rule structurally favors low-population conservative counties — even small numbers of refusals in 8 of 23 counties can torpedo statewide majority preferences.
2026: No Cannabis Initiative on the Ballot
As of May 2026, no cannabis-policy initiative has been certified for the November 2026 Wyoming ballot. The Wyoming Cannabis Coalition and Compassionate Options Wyoming have continued organizing but have not announced a 2026 petition campaign. Reform energy has shifted toward legislative pathways — though those have also failed across six consecutive sessions. See six failed sessions page.
Implications for the Reform Strategy
The 2024 failure exposed the structural difficulty of using Wyoming’s ballot process for any progressive policy reform that lacks majority support in conservative low-population counties. Cannabis-reform polling in Wyoming shows majority support for medical use (consistent University of Wyoming and other polls show 65%+ for medical), but that majority is geographically concentrated in Albany, Teton, and parts of Laramie counties — not distributed across 16 counties. The geographic threshold creates a structural anti-majoritarian barrier.
The implication for cannabis advocates: ballot initiatives are not a viable near-term path. Legislative reform — despite the budget-session 2/3-introduction trap — is the only practical route. Constitutional amendment to lower the geographic threshold would itself require the same difficult ballot-petition process or a 2/3 legislative supermajority.
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Related on this site: WY Reform: Sen. Case, Gov. Mark Gordon, Send a Message.