Wyoming: House kills bill extending count of absentee ballots | WyoFile

The Wyoming House on Monday killed a bill that would have extended the period for counting absentee ballots. House Corporations Committee Chairman Dan Zwonitzer (R, HD-43, Cheyenne) sponsored HB68 that would have required county clerks to count absentee ballots received by the clerk after polls closed. Under existing law, clerks count only ballots delivered to them before polls close. Zwonitzer said the measure would have required the clerks to count absentee ballots postmarked the day before an election, provided they were received before a county’s canvassing board met to certify election results the following Friday. County clerks had expressed their dissatisfaction with the bill in a committee hearing last week. Their opposition came through during floor debate Monday. Rep. Lloyd Larsen (R, HD-54, Lander), said his clerk had lobbied him to vote against the bill. When she calls, he listens, he said. Other representatives said they likewise had been called by their county clerks.

Wyoming: Committee votes down presidential primary bill | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

A committee of Wyoming lawmakers on Monday voted down a bill creating a presidential primary election, instead opting to study the issue during the interim. The vote in the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee came after concerns were raised by county clerks as to the specifics of how such an election would work, as well as a need by the state Republican Party to change its bylaws to allow for a primary. As proposed, House Bill 201 would have set a separate presidential primary election in April, in addition to the regular primary in August and the general election in November. Although not written into the bill itself, Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, said the intent is for the political parties to foot the cost of the presidential primary.

Wyoming: House committee rejects voter ID bill | Casper Star Tribune

The House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee on Thursday voted down a bill to require voters to show photo identification at the polls. But it advanced bills concerning a system for permanent absentee ballots, election recounts and the date at which an absentee ballot must be accepted. Committee members voted down a voter ID bill that was brought by committee member Rep. Lars Lone, R-Cheyenne. Lone said he was given a ballot for an incorrect precinct when he went to vote and said if he had been required to show identification, that situation could have been avoided. Lone said he was not bringing the bill because of voter fraud concerns.

Wyoming: House Passes Bill Which Would Automatically Restore Voting Rights of Some Nonviolent Felons | KTWO

A person convicted in Wyoming of a nonviolent felony who completes their entire sentence on or after Jan. 1, 2010, would have their voting rights automatically restored under a bill passed Thursday by the Wyoming House of Representatives. House Bill 75 passed on third reading by a vote of 41-17 with two lawmakers excused. The measure would require people convicted of a nonviolent felony who completed their sentence — including probation and parole — before 2010 to fill out a request form and be found eligible before their voting rights could be restored.

Wyoming: Voters would be required to show ID under proposed bill | Casper Star Tribune

As Republican legislatures across the country pass various restrictions on voting, Wyoming remains one of the easiest states in which to cast a ballot. Residents do not need to provide identification when they go to the polls, and they can even register to vote on the day of the election. But House Bill 167, filed at the Wyoming Legislature last week, would change that by requiring people to show photo identification when they go to vote. The measure is sponsored by Rep. Lars Lone, R-Cheyenne, who said that during the general election in November he was not asked for photo identification. “I was given a ballot for (House) District 44, and I’m in 12,” he said.

Wyoming: House committee advances voting rights bill, more | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

The House Judiciary Committee advanced bills Thursday that would expand automatic restoration of voting rights to nonviolent felons, create a more defined system for returning a victim’s property held as evidence and allow the state Department of Enterprise Technology Services to conduct background checks on employees. A bill introduced by Rep. James Byrd, D-Cheyenne, would automatically restore voting rights to more nonviolent felons. House Bill 75 eliminates the application process for nonviolent felons who have completed their sentence to have their voting rights restored. Instead, it directs the Wyoming Department of Corrections to automatically issue certificates of voting rights restoration to affected people if their conviction was in Wyoming. Felons convicted outside of Wyoming or by a federal law would have to submit a request to the Department of Corrections.

Wyoming: Bill would expand automatic restoration of voting rights to eligible non-violent Wyoming felons | Casper Star Tribune

More nonviolent felons who have completed their entire sentence – including probation and parole – would have their voting rights automatically restored under a bill introduced in the Wyoming Legislature. Under the current system, nonviolent felons who completed their sentence before Jan. 1, 2016, were convicted under federal law or who were sentenced out of state can have their rights restored, but must first complete an application process. Felons who were sentenced in Wyoming and completed their sentence after Jan. 1, 2016, would be exempt from the application requirement.

Wyoming: Bill would expand automatic restoration of voting rights to some felons | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

More nonviolent felons who have completed their entire sentence – including probation and parole – would have their voting rights automatically restored under a bill introduced in the Wyoming Legislature. Under the current system, nonviolent felons who completed their sentence before Jan. 1, 2016, were convicted under federal law or who were sentenced out of state can have their rights restored, but must first complete an application process. Felons who were sentenced in Wyoming and completed their sentence after Jan. 1, 2016, would be exempt from the application requirement. House Bill 75 eliminates the application process and instead directs the Wyoming Department of Corrections to automatically issue certificates of voting rights restoration to affected people if their conviction was in Wyoming.

Wyoming: Bill would give election officials more time to accept mail-in ballots | Casper Star Tribune

State lawmakers will consider a bill in Cheyenne that would give county clerks additional time after the primary and general elections to count mail-in absentee ballots. With a number of close races in 2016, absentee ballots can make a difference in the outcome, said Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, a Cheyenne Republican who is sponsoring House Bill 68. State law currently allows county clerks to accept mail-in ballots until 7 p.m. on the day of the election. But Zwontizer said that there are people who don’t mail in their ballots until a day before the election. If there are any delays at the post office, county clerks don’t receive the mail until after the election, and the ballots cannot be counted, he said.

Wyoming: Bill would let residents become “permanent absentee” voters | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Wyoming voters would be able to apply for status as a permanent absentee voter under a proposed law that will be considered by the Legislature in 2017. The Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee voted Monday to forward such a bill to the full body. Under a permanent absentee designation, a voter would automatically be sent an absentee ballot instead of having to request one for each election. However, a voter could lose his or her permanent absentee status for one of several reasons stipulated in the bill. Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese said absentee voting saves her office time as the election nears, as it cuts down on paperwork and the number of people who vote early in person as well as on Election Day. “That is a big savings to us,” she said.

Wyoming: Democrats move to larger caucus venues, expect high turnout | Caspar Star-Tribune

Democrats in six Wyoming counties, including Natrona, will move their April 9 presidential nominating caucuses to large venues, as leaders of the state’s minority party are now projecting higher-than-anticipated turnout. The Natrona County Democratic Party caucus will now be held at the Casper Events Center, said Brett Governanti, party chairman. The event was previously scheduled to be at Casper College. Other counties with venue changes include Laramie, Sweetwater and Albany, said Aimee Van Cleave, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party. “We changed because we are expecting huge turnout levels,” she said. “If you look at Utah and Idaho, you see the overwhelming number of Democrats running out to caucus in those states. In Wyoming, we’re expecting to have comparable to 2008 turnout, and we want to accommodate all of our voters. It’s really exciting.”

Wyoming: Cheyenne officials: New voting procedures a success | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Cheyenne was the guinea pig for the rollout of both vote centers and electronic pollbooks in Wyoming on Tuesday. Based on the outcome, government officials are confident the systems will be successful as they are implemented countywide and statewide in future elections. Both processes are enabled by new legislation passed earlier this year by the Wyoming Legislature. They are designed to make the voting process more efficient and available to voters. Vote centers refer to a network of polling locations that allow voters choice in where to vote. Instead of voting at a specific precinct, voters can vote at any of the centers.

Wyoming: Chief election officer steps down, citing ‘philosophical differences” with newly elected secretary of state | Caspar Star-Tribune

Wyoming’s top elections official has stepped down due to “philosophical differences” with Secretary of State Ed Murray. Peggy Nighswonger, who has been the state’s elections director since 1996 and worked in the Wyoming Department of Education before that, retired last month. In an interview Monday, she said her working relationship with Murray was one of the reasons she decided to end her career with the state. “I have worked for nine elected officials, and sometimes you just don’t have the same philosophy as they have,” she said. “I’m old enough to retire, and as much as I hate to leave, I just felt it was time.”

Wyoming: House committee clears e-pollbooks, vote centers | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

A House committee gave its approval Tuesday to a bill that would allow county clerks to begin using electronic pollbooks and vote centers instead of traditional polling places on Election Day. Senate File 52 would allow county clerks to replace their existing paper pollbooks with electronic books for the purposes of keeping track of who is registered to vote, who has voted and where they voted. With electronic pollbooks, clerks would also be able to open “vote centers,” or polling places where anyone in a given jurisdiction can vote on Election Day, regardless of where they live within that jurisdiction. The idea of the bill is to provide better access to voters, particularly for jurisdictions where some far-flung polling places are having trouble staying open due to a lack of election judges. It also, in the case of elementary schools, would help alleviate any safety concerns about interaction between schoolchildren and the voting public.

Wyoming: Voting centers bill marches ahead in Legislature | Casper Star Tribune

A House committee Tuesday forwarded a bill that would allow county clerks to establish centralized voting places for future elections. Senate File 52 previously passed the Senate and now has three rounds of voting before potentially becoming law. In Wyoming, people vote by geographical precinct. A county voting center would be a place where anyone, regardless of their precinct, could vote. Laramie County Clerk Debbye Lathrop told members of the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee voting centers would be helpful to someone who lives in one town and works in a larger city, where a voting center could located. Instead of having to drive home during the lunch hour, the voter could cast a ballot in the city.

Wyoming: Bill Proposes Voting Centers and E-Poll Books | KCWY

Your neighborhood polling place may join typewriters and Model T’s if one bill passes the legislature. News 13’s Cody O’Hara spoke with senators favoring the bill who say it will increase voter turnout, as well as one who says he sees this as a way to close some polling places. “We need to make it easier for people to vote and this bill goes in the opposite direction,” said Senator Charlie Scott of Natrona County. A bill being held back in the Senate until Wednesday would allow electronic voter check in at any local polls as well as establish optional voting centers, but some senators say it will lead to polling place closures. “I don’t know of any clerk who has any intention to close any existing polling places,” said Senator Cale Case of Natrona County.

Wyoming: Rural lawmakers question voting centers in Wyoming | Casper Star Tribune

In a preliminary vote Thursday, the state Senate approved a bill that would allow Wyoming counties to create centralized voting places. Senate File 52 has to pass two more rounds of voting before it heads to the House, and some lawmakers are questioning whether the bill would disenfranchise rural voters and endanger election records. In Wyoming, polling places are by neighborhood precinct in larger cities. In rural areas, a precinct may comprise an entire community. SF52 would let counties create centers where registered voters could cast ballots regardless of precinct. The bill would also allow electronic pollbooks, which provide information to poll workers about whether a voter is registered. Currently, pollbooks are printed on paper. The Wyoming County Clerks Association supports central polling places. It believes centers would increase voter participation.

Wyoming: Lawmakers Propose Changing Voting Location Requirements | KCWY

The intent is to save time, effort, and money as well as make it easier for people to vote. For example Natrona county has 46 polling places this bill could narrow it down to 3. Secretary of State- Elect Ed Murray says he supports the concept, but others are skeptical. “Three polling places isn’t very many for our geographic area and the problem is even worse in the larger counties like Carbon and Fremont,” said Republican State Senator Charles Scott. Senator Scott says Natrona county is equal in size to Connecticut, in which three doesn’t sound like enough to accommodate voters in Natrona county. County Clerk Renea Vitto says at first it may increase voter turnout.

Wyoming: Legislature mulls election changes | Wyoming Tribune Eagle

A legislative proposal could change how residents vote next Election Day. The state Legislature will consider a bill during the upcoming session that would allow county clerks to use electronic pollbooks and voting centers. These features would allow residents to vote at a centralized location – or locations – within their county instead of having to go to the specific polling place for their precinct. This, for example, could allow a resident who lives in Burns to vote in Cheyenne on Election Day. The electronic pollbooks, which would replace traditional paper books that poll workers use to check in voters, also could speed up the voting process and enhance the security of elections.

Wyoming: Felon voting rights bill advances in committee | Associated Press

A bill to make it easier for nonviolent felons to regain their voting rights was approved Friday by a legislative committee in Wyoming. The Joint Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the measure that would ultimately create an automatic process to restore the rights. The full Legislature will consider the bill when it convenes early next year. Under current law, people convicted of a single nonviolent felony or a number of nonviolent felonies stemming from the same event, must wait five years before applying to the state parole board for restoration of their voting rights.

Wyoming: Lessons for Voters: Fill in Ovals, Don’t Bleed on Ballots | K2 Radio

Thursday’s ballot recount affirmed the results from Tuesday’s Republican primary for the top three county commission candidates headed for the the Nov. 4 general election. “The same amount of ballots were cast, the outcome was the same” County Clerk Renea Vitto said. But small differences in the numbers of votes for the individual candidates in the commissioners’ and other races underscored a lesson for voters: Fill in the ovals on the ballots, and don’t make a mess. … It boils down to how the machine reads at the ovals — dubbed “target areas” — you fill in on the ballots, they said. The machine looks at how much white and how much black is in the target area and has a threshold it measures of how much black is there, Burns said. “If it’s black black, compared to the other ones, then it it says ‘okay, that’s voted for.’”

Wyoming: Secretary of state race highlights counties’ differing election equipment | Billings Gazette

As primary election results poured in late Tuesday night, the seesaw battle in the secretary of state race became the main event. Ed Murray and Ed Buchanan hovered at 36 percent of the vote, trading the lead throughout the night. One cloud loomed over the race until the bitter end. Laramie County, Murray’s home turf, had yet to report the entirety of its results with more than 80 percent of the state’s precincts reporting. The time it took to get the results from Laramie County, while adding drama to the race, left many in the age of instant gratification wondering what took so long. Laramie County Clerk Debbye Balcaen Lathrop said there were no issues in reporting the vote. “If people had any kind of memory, they would know that we finished last night about the same time we did in the primary two years ago and four years ago,” she said. “The reason the focus was on Laramie County last night is people knew that our results would change the secretary of state’s race.”

Wyoming: Judge approves settlement in campaign finance suit | Associated Press

A provision of Wyoming law that restricted third-party political candidate fundraising is unconstitutional and can’t be enforced, a federal judge has ordered. U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson on Tuesday approved a settlement agreement ending a lawsuit challenging the fundraising restriction. Jennifer Young of Torrington, running for secretary of state as a Constitution Party candidate, and one of her supporters, Donald Wills of Pine Bluffs, sued the state. They challenged a state campaign finance law that limited fundraising for candidates whose parties don’t participate in primary elections. Johnson approved a settlement agreement that the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office reached with Young and Wills. The order states the fundraising restriction is unconstitutional and can’t be enforced.

Wyoming: State considers restoring felon voting rights | The Washington Post

Felons who have served their prison sentences could win back their right to vote under a proposal to be considered next week by a Wyoming legislative panel. The measure, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, would establish a process of re-enfranchisement for nonviolent first-time offenders once they finish serving time behind bars, probation or parole. The ACLU’s Wyoming chapter said the bill would have restored voting rights to 4,200 nonviolent offenders in Wyoming between 2000 and 2011. Current law only allows restoration of voting rights to felons who are pardoned by the governor or who are specifically given the right to vote by the state parole board. But the law doesn’t lay out any criteria for re-enfranchisement, and some members of the board have complained they don’t have enough guidance.

Wyoming: Lawmakers consider allowing nonviolent felons to regain the right to vote | Associated Press

Wyoming lawmakers are considering setting up an automatic process to allow some felons to regain their voting rights after they serve their time. The bill would to set up a process to restore voting rights for nonviolent, first-time offenders once they finish serving their sentences, including any probation or parole. Currently, offenders must apply to the state parole board for restoration of voting rights. The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee is set to consider the issue next week in Newcastle. Bob Lampert, director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections, is set to testify to the committee next week. He said Wednesday he’ll be prepared to answer questions without taking a position on what lawmakers should do.

Wyoming: Lawmakers weigh giving nonviolent felons right to vote | Star-Tribune

The Wyoming Joint Judiciary Interim Committee wants to consider automatically restoring voting rights to nonviolent felons after their incarceration or probation ends. The committee of state lawmakers ordered legislative staff Tuesday to draft a bill that would automatically restore voting rights, as part of a discussion about relieving the Wyoming Parole Board of the decade-old duty of restoring voting rights. The committee ordered a separate bill to relieve the Parole Board of restoring voting rights. Both bills will be discussed before the 2015 legislative session. Currently, the governor and Parole Board restore voting rights in Wyoming. The duty was given to the Parole Board in 2003. Board member Doug Chamberlain said restoring voting rights is time-consuming. This year, the board has already had 300 parole board hearings. If the board denies voting rights to someone who thinks he has the right, an appeal can take time, Chamberlain said.

Wyoming: 2 groups ask for campaign finance change with Supreme Court ruling | Casper Star Tribune

The Cheyenne-based Wyoming Liberty Group and the Alexandria, Va.-based Center for Competitive Politics are calling on the state to change election rules to conform to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The court ruled in McCutcheon v. FEC that donors could not be limited in how much they spend in overall contributions, called aggregate contributions, to political candidates, parties and political action committees in each election cycle, according to the Center for Competitive Politics. The group calls itself the nation’s largest organization dedicated solely to First Amendment political rights. Current Wyoming law limits contributions in an election cycle to $25,000 in aggregate to all candidates, said Steve Klein, of the Wyoming Liberty Group, which fights for economic and political freedoms.

Wyoming: Committee studies restoring voting rights to felons | Star-Tribune

Wyoming lawmakers are going to study between now and the next legislative session the Wyoming Parole Board’s duties to restore convicted felons’ voting rights. On Wednesday, the Management Council, a committee of Wyoming House and Senate leadership, asked the Judiciary Interim Committee to study the issue. That followed an April 3 letter from the Parole Board sent to Senate President Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, asking for an interim study. Parole Board member Douglas Chamberlain, a former House speaker and Torrington resident, doesn’t think restoring voting rights to felons has anything to do with the board’s duties. “I suggested we have that issue revisited by the Legislature if they would because I think it’s a contradiction within the law,” he said.