Wyoming Bill For Election, Recall Of State Health Officer Filed

A bill that would make the position of Wyoming State Health Officer an elected office has been filed for the 2021 session of the Wyoming Legislature.

The bill would also include a provision for the recall of the state health officer.

You can read Senate File 95 here. It's sponsored by Sens. Bouchard, Driskill, French, James and McKeown and Representative(s) Baker, Bear, Burt, Fortner, Gray, Laursen, Styvar, Wharff, and Winter.

Currently, the state health officer is appointed by the governor, and there is no provision for a citizen recall of that office. Under Senate File 95, the State Health Officer would join the governor, treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, and state superintendent as statewide elected officials.

The office would be up for election every four years. The bill also includes the following procedure for prompting a recall election for the state health officer:

''(i)  A petition signed by at least ten percent (10%) of all the registered electors and demanding an election of a successor of the state health officer shall be filed with the secretary of state. The petition shall contain a general statement of the grounds for removal. The signatures to the petition need not all be appended to one (1) paper, but each signer shall include the signer's place of residence, giving the street and number. One (1) of the signers of each paper shall make oath before a competent officer that the statements therein made are true as the signer believes, and that each signature is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be;

 (ii)  Within ten (10) days from the date of filing the petition the secretary of state shall determine whether the petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified electors. The secretary of state shall attach to the petition a certificate, showing the result of the examination. If the petition is insufficient, it shall be returned to the person who filed it, without prejudice to the filing of a new petition to the same effect. If the petition is sufficient, the secretary of state shall then fix a date for holding a special removal election, not less than thirty (30) days nor more than forty (40) days from the date of the secretary of state's certificate of sufficiency. The secretary of state shall publish notice and arrange for holding the election."

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