By Micah Sturr Boomerang Staff Writer
Albany County District Court Judge Jeffrey Donnell ruled to uphold the election that produced Laramie’s smoking ban.
The group that brought the lawsuit against the city still has the opportunity to appeal, and new lawsuits could be filed by other groups, but barring further action, another election will not be held and the smoking ban will continue.
Laramie residents can’t smoke in public, and they can’t vote again on it, either.
The plaintiffs, represented by local attorney Janet Tyler, said that the election was flawed in six ways — ballot boxes were improperly opened; unfolded ballots were counted; some voters were deprived of absentee ballots; the ballot didn’t contain appropriate language; the wrong return address was listed on some absentee ballots; and voting instructions were not properly posted at some precincts.
The ruling addressed each of these complaints individually, but Donnell’s overarching reason for dismissing the lawsuit is that, regardless of possible procedural problems, the outcome of the election wasn’t affected.
“This Court interprets Wyoming law to require that Plaintiffs demonstrate not just that illegal votes were counted or legal votes not counted but also that such matters affected the results of the election. Under that interpretation, Plaintiffs, again, have failed to carry their burden as they have failed to demonstrate any effect on the election,” according to Wednesday’s decision.
Tyler was unavailable to comment on the decision on Wednesday, and city attorney Peggy Trent refused to speak with the Boomerang.
Mayor Jodi Guerin said that she was happy with the decision because it is consistent with the voting wishes of Laramie’s citizens.
“I’m obviously pleased because, from the standpoint of the city, we’ve been trying to defend the citizens’ choice,” Guerin said.
“When there was a lawsuit after the fact, I guess you could say that it’s a slight against all of the citizens who voted, to a certain degree,” Guerin said.
While she expressed satisfaction at the lawsuit being dismissed, Guerin was cautiously optimistic that the latest development is the true end of the smoking ban saga.
“I’m sure that this won’t be the end of it. During our hearings we had a number of people stand up and say that they would file lawsuits, so this very well may not be the end of it,” Guerin said. “The unfortunate part of it for me is that, every time somebody litigates against the city, the citizens bear a cost. And given that the citizens spoke out (in favor of the smoking ban), I think it should stand.”
The election will stand, thanks to Donnell’s ruling based on the relevant law.
“Plaintiff has presented nothing to demonstrate that the election results would change; to the contrary, Defendants assure this Court that it would not,” according to the judgement.
So, any reaction or comments are welcome!
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1 comment:
Typical bad journalism by the Rumorbang. The sentence
Laramie residents can’t smoke in public, and they can’t vote again on it, either
is wrong and misleading. People can smoke in public, but not in enclosed public places where it would hurt other people. And the fact of the matter is that if another vote were held, the election would not get the same turnout that we got for the presidential election, so fewer voters would participate and the results would not be as good a reflection of the public will. Finally, the public could vote on it again if there were another ordinance and another referendum.
The public has spoken twice on this issue, once through its elected representatives (by a margin of 2:1) and once at the polls. How much more clearly could it possibly speak?
The Rumorbang is biased. Its publisher smokes and the reporters (who work for low wages and have high turnover) know that they have to please him to keep their jobs.
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