Secretary of State of Wyoming, Thyra Thomson, Appellant (respondent) v. Wyoming In-Stream Flow Committee and Its…

Summary

The court held that the Secretary of State had statutory authority and a mandatory duty to review initiative petitions to determine whether they contained enough signatures from qualified registered voters. It upheld the Secretary’s verification process, rejected the Committee’s constitutional and Administrative Procedure Act challenges, and reinstated the determination that the petition lacked sufficient valid signatures for the 1982 ballot. Chief Justice Rose, dissenting, would have treated the Secretary’s role as ministerial, applied a presumption of signature validity, and affirmed the district court.