City Clerk Rules Petition Against Microsoft Data Center Annexation Invalid

Cheyenne City Clerk Kylie Soden announced that a petition challenging the city's annexation of a Microsoft data center site has failed to meet the required signature count. The announcement confirms that the planned expansion will proceed as originally approved by the Cheyenne City Council.

The petition aimed to force a public referendum on the annexation of 3,460 acres in the southeast part of the city. State law mandates that 10 percent of registered voters within city limits must sign such a petition to trigger a vote. For this specific project, that requirement translated to 2,740 valid signatures from eligible residents.

Opponents of the annexation collected 3,291 signatures for the petition. However, the clerk's office immediately excluded 61 signatures that did not meet basic signing requirements. The remaining signatures underwent a detailed review to determine eligibility based on residency and voter registration status.

A news release from the clerk's office detailed the breakdown of the excluded signatures. Among the remaining documents, 773 signatures came from Laramie County residents living outside city limits. An additional 539 signatures belonged to city residents who were not registered to vote. Another 122 signatures were removed for being illegible, lacking proper address details, or appearing as duplicates.

After these exclusions, the petition retained 1,796 valid signatures. This total fell more than 900 short of the 2,740 needed to compel a ballot measure. With the petition now ruled insufficient, the annexation process continues without a public vote.

The decision relies on the strict interpretation of state law regarding voter residency at the time of petition submission. Only registered voters within Cheyenne city limits could contribute a valid signature to the count.