Wyoming Lawmakers To Consider I-80 Toll Road, Voter ID Today

The 2021 Wyoming Legislative session is winding down to the last few days, but legislative committees are slated to discuss a couple of high-profile bills in committee today [March 30].

Tomorrow is the deadline for bills to be reported out of committee.

The Senate Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee is slated to consider House Bill 75 this morning. The bill, which more than 2/3 of the members of the legislature are co-sponsoring, would require Wyoming voters to show identification before casting a ballot.

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While even many of the bill's supporters don't claim that election fraud has been a big problem in Wyoming, they say the measure is a pro-active attempt to head off such problems in the future. In House debate on the measure, Rep. Andi Clifford [D-Fremont County] argued that it would tend to discourage voter turnout and amounts to voter suppression while not addressing any actual problem in the state. The bill passed the House 51-9 earlier this session.

The House Transportation and Military Affairs Committee, meanwhile, is slated to take up a proposal to make Interstate 80 a toll road today at noon. Senate File 73 passed the Senate recently on a 16-13 vote.

Even if the bill were to become law, however, a number of questions about the basic concept behind the bill would remain. Not least of these is whether the federal government would allow Wyoming to impose tolls on a federal interstate.

The session is slated to wrap up on April 7. It was originally scheduled to end on Friday, April 2, but a record-setting snowstorm shut down proceedings for two days. Because of that, the legislature will meet next Tuesday and Wednesday after taking Monday off for Easter recess.