UNConstitutional republic review

Last week’s paper reported that the Hot Springs County Republican Party passed three resolutions. 

The first, requiring a return to hand counting ballots for all elections in Wyoming, should be summarily dismissed.  All studies show that the error rate for voting machines is much lower than hand counts of ballots. Hand counting ballots would make Wyoming elections less secure. If you have questions regarding the safety of our voting machines and elections processes, please visit with our County Clerk who can outline all of the election protection procedures in place in Hot Springs County. If you would like copies of the studies referenced above, please contact the signatories to this letter.

The second, and most disturbing resolution, was reported in the paper as follows:  “In addition, a resolution to support republic review, which basically encourages that a committee of HSC citizens, HSC County Commissioners and the HSC Republican Party form a standing committee to identify any violations of the Constitution, and to help educate citizens of the law and processes of what is Constitutional and what is not and why.”

Let that sink in. A committee that has no Constitutional experts, scholars or lawyers, composed of a single political party and our Commissioners (who take an oath to serve all citizens, regardless of party), will “identify any violations” and educate citizens about the Constitutionality of their actions? The Constitution creates an entire branch of government, the judiciary, to determine what is and is not Constitutional for all Americans. It does not empower any state or local governmental entity, much less any group of unelected, non-appointed citizens, to make those determinations for others. This resolution expressly leaves out Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, Constitutionalists - all other parties.

There is no single interpretation of the Constitution. Our founders consisted of Federalists, who wanted to concentrate power in the federal government, and Anti-Federalists, who believed power should be held by the states. Even within various political parties, there are originalists, textualists and those who see the Constitution as a living document. The very basis of American representative democracy is equality - one person, one vote. The idea that an unelected, non-appointed committee consisting of a single political party and governmental officials at the local level could single-handedly determine what is and is not Constitutional based on their personal interpretation would have been anathema to the framers and violates the supremacy clause.

Locally, Wyoming Title 18-1-305 states that “each commissioner shall take .... an oath that he will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of his office as prescribed by law.” Governmental collaboration with a single political party for any reason could not be described as impartial. Hot Springs County Commissioners neither have the authority nor the ability to participate in such a committee.

It appears that a committee composed of people without extensive academic and legal experience in Constitutional studies should leave Constitutional questions to our judicial branch, which is Constitutionally tasked with solving such issues.

Kim Bartlett and Levi Shinkle

Editors note: According to the HSC Commissioners, they were not consulted regarding being included as a cooperative entity to serve on the review committee.