Bondurant resident Bill Winney is one step closer to entering the race for Wyoming House District 22, in which he would vie against Star Valley’s Marti Halverson.

Winney submitted on Monday the petition needed to enter the election as an independent candidate for the district that covers part of Teton County. State election officials are validating the signatures he turned in.

Winney needs only 90 signatures from residents within the district. He submitted roughly 240 signatures, state elections director Peggy Nighswonger said Monday.

Over the next week, state elections staffers — likely temporary workers — will review the signatures listed on Winney’s petition.  They will check the petition against a statewide voter database to make sure the people who signed the petition live in House District 22, Nighswonger said. They will not, however, verify whether the signatures truly belong to those residents, she said.

Nighswonger said her office likely will verify the petition by early next week. State officials have to certify ballots for county clerks by Sept. 6.

Halverson, a Republican, didn’t draw an opponent in the Aug. 21 primary election.

Winney, who has made previous bids for elected office as a Republican, said he decided to run for office after hearing Halverson speak at a forum in Pinedale.

He ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Barbara Cubin for a seat in the U.S. House in 2006. In 2008, he lost to Cynthia Lummis for the same seat.

In 2010, Winney managed to win the Republican nomination for House District 22 but lost to incumbent representative Jim Roscoe.

State elections officials also are reviewing write-in votes. A state elections board is slated to announce today whether any candidates in the races for Senate District 16 or House District 23 garnered enough votes to make it onto the general election ballot.

Teton County Clerk Sherry Daigle said there were 25 write-in votes — the amount needed to get on the ballot — cast in House District 23. That seat is held by incumbent Keith Gingery, R-Jackson. All were not cast in support of one person, though.

The same holds true for Senate District 16, she said. There was a wide array of write-in votes cast in that district, which is held by Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton.

No one person received enough votes to cross the threshold required to get on the November ballot, however. Daigle’s observations need to be confirmed by the state board.

State election officials expected to call anyone who receives enough votes and ask whether they want to appear on the November ballot. A filing process would follow.