Secretary of state selection shows process is broken

Shortly before Ed Buchanan left the secretary of state’s post early to take a judgeship, the Wyoming Republican Party wrote a letter asking him to stay on through the November election.

Party officials wrote that asking an interim secretary of state to oversee an election with only a few weeks on the job would be setting that person up for failure. There was just too much to learn in that short of a time.

Buchanan was undeterred. When he resigned, Wyoming law required the state GOP to help find the person to finish out his term. Specifically, the party was tasked with nominating three peo...