On February 23, Wyoming HB 76 was signed into law by Governor Dave Freudenthal. Among other things, it says that if any qualified party fails to certify the names of its presidential and vice-presidential nominees by 60 days before the general election, the state will not print those nominees on the ballot. Instead it would just print, for example, “Republican nominees for president and vice-president”.

This is the first time any state has ever said “No” to the major parties, on this issue. Generally the major parties choose their convention dates and then ask the state legislatures to relax the deadlines if those national conventions are quite late. The states always either accede, or else ignore their own legal deadlines and accomodate the major parties anyway.