"Fremont County officials should comply with a federal judge's voter-rights ruling so that county commission elections can take place as soon as possible. Instead, they appear to have chosen a path that is at best a reluctant response to the ruling and will result only in delays.

Last week, attorneys for the county asked U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson to modify his recent order requiring the county to abandon its system of electing county commissioners at large and to start electing them from single-member districts. Johnson ruled in April that at-large voting for Fremont County commissioners violates federal law by diluting the American Indian vote. The county includes much of the Wind River Indian Reservation, home of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.

Lawyers for the county want Johnson to modify his order to require only that the county present a voting plan that would not be in violation of federal law, and not mandate that the county adopt single-member commission districts. Other courts have ruled that mixtures of at-large voting and single-district voting can fix violations of the Voting Rights Act, according to the county.

It may be true that single-member districts aren't the only way to comply with the law in some situations, but they're clearly the best solution for Fremont County. It would be in the interests of everyone in the county for officials to stop quibbling with the judge's ruling and adopt a system of single-member districts."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Fremont County should follow judge's order (The Casper Star-Tribune 6/1)

Lawsuit Documents:
Large v. Fremont County (ACLU)

Earlier Story:
Indians win voting rights lawsuit (The Casper Star-Tribune 4/30)

Related Stories:
Plaintiffs in voting rights case seek district for reservation (5/4)
Editorial: Wyoming Indians win major voting rights ruling (5/3)