Wyoming

Wyoming: Canvassing Board Certifies Election Despite Weston County Miscount | Leo Wolfson/Cowboy State Daily

Although there were few surprises in the results of Wyoming’s general election last week, Secretary of State Chuck Gray claimed at the Wyoming State Canvassing Board meeting on Wednesday that “a number of issues” popped up on election night. The most significant occurred in Weston County, where incorrect ballots were inadvertently used in an election machine, leading to a 1,236-vote disparity in the House District 1 race where state Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, was running unopposed. A few Weston County residents like Newcastle Mayor Pam Gualtieri requested that the state Canvassing Board delay certifying the results of the general election because of what happened in the miscount. Gualtieri said she’s talked to a few local residents that were elected but aren’t sure if they should take office because of what happened. Read Article

Wyoming: Holding an election in remote Wyoming requires extraordinary measures. Just look at Bairoil. | Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile

Audra Thornton knew every person who visited town hall on Tuesday to cast their vote in the election. But she still turned some folks away, instructing them to return with their IDs. After all, rules are rules — even in Bairoil, a tiny and shrinking Sweetwater County community that only about 60 people call home. “It doesn’t matter if we know them or not,” Thornton said. “We still have to see their identification. We just have to abide by the law.” Following state and federal laws is of course a necessary part of administering any election in Wyoming. Poll workers and county staff, however, go to extraordinary lengths to pull off an election in the most rural reaches of the least populated state in the nation. Read Article

Wyoming: Gillette Hand-Count Ballot Test Shows It Would Take Hundreds Of Counters, Cost Up To $1.3M | Leo Wolfson/Cowboy State Daily

A movement for hand counting election ballots in Wyoming has been gaining steam but faces many logistical hurdles if it’s ever required by law. A hand count election test conducted in Gillette last weekend showed that it could take hundreds of volunteers and cost as much as $1.3 million to make full hand counting of ballots work in Campbell County alone with an expectancy of getting results within a day of an election. Gillette resident Patricia Junek, a hand count supporter who helped facilitate the Campbell County test, said although she thought the test was “very successful” and proved hand counting could easily be done in Wyoming, it also showed a lot of volunteers would need to be recruited to make it happen. “We would need a substantial amount of people to count ballots,” Junek said. Read Article

The Wyoming GOP alleges the state’s voting equipment is not accurate. How so and is it fixable? | Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Media

It’s standard practice for voting equipment to be tested before an election. This year was no different. About two weeks before the primary all 23 county clerks in the state went ahead and tested their voting equipment. But this time at least three counties’ results were not in accordance with a line in the Wyoming Election Code, according to the Wyoming GOP. They provided evidence for Goshen, Laramie and Albany Counties, but claim other counties also were in violation. To understand why this line is so important, I called Pamela Smith,the president and CEO of Verified Voting, an organization that promotes responsible use of technology in elections. Smith is aware of this law and said it’s actually really important. “The important thing is that when you’re testing [voting equipment], you need to be sure that it’s correctly capturing votes. So when you prepare to test it, having different numbers of votes for a particular candidate that you insert and then expect to find in the results will tell you that,” Smith explained. Smith pointed to an incident in Pennsylvania last year as an example. It was a judicial retention question whether voters wanted to keep multiple judges. “The way the question was worded, you could say yes to the first one, yes to the second one. You could say no to the first one, no to the second one,” she said. “ [Election officials] tested for those kinds of answers, but they failed to test for what would happen if someone said yes to one and no to the other. As a consequence, there was a mis-programming that wasn’t caught.” Read Article

Wyoming Secretary of State requests retest of voting machines in ‘multiple counties’ | Hannah Shields/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Secretary of State Chuck Gray stated in a Monday news release that he sent out letters to several Wyoming county clerks, asking for them to retest their voting machines “following multiple reports” of these tests being out of compliance with state statute. “This problem was not isolated to Laramie County,” Gray said in the release. The Laramie County Republican Party filed a complaint last week with the Secretary of State’s Office, claiming the county’s voting machine test was not in compliance with state statute. According to the complaint, ballots fed into the machine on Aug. 5 had the same number of votes for each candidate. Under Wyoming statute, the machines must be fed ballots with a varied number of votes for candidates. Gray said in the release that this mistake was repeated in “multiple counties.” In a news release sent out eight days before the Aug. 20 primary election, Gray said the clerks of these counties have been asked to retest their voting machines. Read Article

Wyoming county clerks rebuff Secretary of State, keep ballot drop boxes | Maggie Mullen/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Wyoming counties that used ballot drop boxes in 2022 will employ them again this year, despite Secretary of State Chuck Gray urging local election officials to ditch them ahead of early voting. Voters in the seven counties that provided drop boxes two years ago — Albany, Carbon, Converse, Fremont, Laramie, Sweetwater and Teton — will have the option to use them again this year to return absentee ballots. Drop boxes represent a legal, secure and convenient way for voters to deliver their ballots, several county clerks told WyoFile, adding that they made the decision to keep drop boxes in consultation with their local county attorneys. The boxes allow for rural ranchers and shift workers in the energy industry to safely drop off their ballots outside the operating hours of the clerk’s office, some clerks also said. Read Article

Wyoming: Push To Ditch Ballot Machines For Hand Counts Gaining Steam | Cowboy State Daily

A push to eliminate electronic ballot counting machines in favor of hand counts in Wyoming’s elections is spreading across the state, and it has the full support of Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Wyoming Voter Initiatives, the same group that recently turned in 44,000 signatures to get a property tax initiative on the 2026 ballot, is now working on a new effort to have all ballots hand counted. The goal is to get the initiative on the 2026 ballots and implemented for the 2028 elections. In addition to the “People’s Initiative to Restore Hand Tabulation of all Elections in Wyoming” ballot initiative, the group also wants to overhaul the state’s Title 22 election code through the Legislature by enacting measures allowing for public ballot inspections, stricter voter ID and registration requirements, and ban ballot dropboxes. Read Article

Wyoming: New initiative seeks to hand count ballots in elections | Wyoming | Jasmine Hall/Gillette News Record

The same group trying to cut property taxes in half is pushing for hand counting ballots in Wyoming elections. Organizers Brent Bien, Cheryl Aguiar and Rich Weber filed their second ballot initiative in January with the Secretary of State’s Office. Now they are traveling across the state to showcase why they believe the change is necessary. Their latest effort seeks to require county clerks to use a hand tabulation system instead of using electronic ballot processing machines. County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming President Malcolm Ervin said election officers have full faith in the machines, testing and auditing procedures already in place in Wyoming. Read Article

Wyoming group tries to make a case for paper ballots and hand counting ballots to the Sweetwater County Commissioners | Wyo4News

The Cause of Wyoming group, affiliated with Cause of America, presented an “Election Integrity Proposal” at the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting, advocating for a shift from the current voting system to paper ballots with manual counting. In response, Commissioner Mary E. Thoman emphasized the county’s use of paper ballots and poll books. Commissioner Island Richards stated, “We have electronic equipment that is backed up by paper ballots. We’re not voting on the screens that we saw in your presentation … We’re voting on paper ballots.” Richards said, “I have looked at and tracked Sweetwater County voting trends for years, and there are leaps of conclusions in those that aren’t backed up by any facts. The presentation … has so many logical fallacies in it that it’s hard to take seriously.” Read Article

Wyoming county clerks pen letter to Secretary of State refuting election denier | Maggie Mullen/WyoFile

The County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming is refuting the claims of a prominent election denier who toured the state in March and April, giving public presentations in six counties and meeting privately with some lawmakers and Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Douglas Frank, a former high school math and science teacher from Ohio, also discussed his assertions of voter fraud with several county clerks. “Throughout those meetings, we have concluded that Dr. Frank conveys claims of impropriety but provides no proof to support his allegations,” Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the clerks’ association, wrote in a letter to Gray on March 29. Most Wyoming voters remain confident in the state’s elections, according to a survey conducted by the University of Wyoming last July and August. And audits before and after both the 2020 and 2022 elections indicated 100% accuracy across the state. The voting machines first used in 2020 were more secure and sophisticated than any other voting machines used in the history of Wyoming’s elections, former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan said while in office. Notably, those machines do not include the software or hardware necessary to connect to the internet or to communicate election results externally. The same is true of the tabulation computer in each county. Despite those facts, Frank told clerks those machines could be hacked remotely, even claiming he, himself, has the ability to do so. When asked for proof, according to the letter, Franked recalled a time “where he supposedly provided proof of that ability to a secretary of state in a southern state.

Full Article: County clerks pen letter to Secretary of State Gray refuting election denier – WyoFile

Wyoming election security bill stumbles but continues progress through the legislature | Hugh Cook/Wyoming Public Media

A bill that would impact the election systems and codify existing rules established by the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office is continuing its journey through the legislature. House Bill 47, sponsored by the Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, was received for concurrence on Feb. 13 but failed on a 6-54-2 vote in the House due to issues with amendments. “We had a standing committee amendment that went through the rules and found, ‘Okay, so here’s a list of rules that are not being codified,’ and then we just decided to codify them,” said Rep. Jared Olson (R-Laramie). “That’s where the bill left. The amendment is a little peculiar, because it basically adopted half of our standing committee amendment and then went back in and backtracked and erased half of our standing committee amendment.” The bill takes rules on election certification from the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office related to federal certification of election systems and would codify them if signed into law. It was laid back or delayed on its third reading in the Senate but later passed that chamber on a 24-7 vote on Feb. 13.

Full Article: An election security bill stumbles but continues progress through the legislature | Wyoming Public Media

Wyoming bill that would codify rules for electronic voting machines has been postponed for a final vote | Hugh Cook/Wyoming Public Media

A bill that would codify rules for electronic voting machines was postponed for its third reading in the Senate. Sponsored by the Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, it passed the House on a 33-27-2 vote and was introduced to the Senate on Jan. 19 where it subsequently passed its first two readings. The bill aims to codify the Wyoming Secretary of State’s guidelines regarding election system security. That includes requiring proof that a vendor, or the provider of a voting system(s) meet the specified requirements outlined in the bill, the EAC [U.S. Election Assistance Commission], and the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office, which would issue a certificate indicating the vendor was in good standing with the state. The EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission that was created by Congress via the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). It’s tasked with developing guidelines to meet HAVA requirements and serve as a clearinghouse of information on election administration, among other responsibilities. “The County Clerk’s support [the bill] and would really appreciate the codification of the federal certification for our electronic voting systems,” said Mary Lankford, a representative of the Wyoming County Clerk’s Association. “We feel that the codification of this portion of the rules only strengthens the security of Wyoming’s election system and our integrity.”

Full Article: A bill that would codify rules for electronic voting machines has been postponed for a final vote | Wyoming Public Media

Wyoming Lawmakers Vote To Reduce Early Voting Window, Require Post-Election Audits | Leo Wolfson/Cowboy State Daily

Wyoming elections would be subject to post-election audits and early voting windows would be shortened under a bill advanced by a legislative committee Tuesday. Senate File 153, titled “Election Security,” would reduce early voting to 28 days from the current 45 for domestic applicants. Overseas applicants and military would still have 45 days to vote early or with an absentee ballot. On post-election audits, state law doesn’t require them, but there’s an outstanding directive to require them by former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan. Pressure to require audits has increased in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, which former President Donald Trump and his supporters have maintained was tainted by widespread fraud. If SF 153 passes, Wyoming would still have the 12th longest early voting period in the country. Mary Lankford, a representative from the Wyoming County Clerks Association, said the average length of early voting offered by U.S. states is 23 days. It passed unanimously out of the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.

Full Article: Wyoming Lawmakers Vote To Reduce Early Voting Window, Require Post-Election Audits – Cowboy State Daily

Wyoming Secretary of State Scores Victory With Defeat Of Bill That Would Have Prevented Ballot Inspections | Leo Wolfson/Cowboy State Daily

Wyoming elections may be subjected to hand-count ballot audits after the Legislature’s House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee killed a bill Wednesday that would have prevented ballot inspections. With the rejection of House Bill 6, the possibility of hand-count ballot audits in Wyoming elections remains alive, as newly sworn in Secretary of State Chuck Gray has said he wants more scrutiny of Wyoming elections. HB 6, which would have clarified that ballots cannot be requested for inspection under the Public Records Act, was rejected by the committee on a 6-3 vote. It also was specific that any ballots, election records or images of ballots would be kept confidential.

Full Article: Chuck Gray Scores Victory With Defeat Of Bill That Would Have Prevented Ballot Inspections – Cowboy State Daily

Wyoming Attorney General Says Park County Cannot Count Ballots By Hand | Leo Wolfson/Cowboy State Daily

An effort to trigger a hand count audit of 2020 election ballots in Park County has been, for the most part, exhausted and rejected. The Wyoming Attorney General’s office has determined that Park County doesn’t have a right to allow a group of citizens to inspect and count ballots by hand. Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric had submitted to the Attorney General’s office three questions related to the matter. … With those questions answered, the Park County commissioners have indicated they’re shutting the door on any future consideration to hand count ballots. In two of the three questions, the AG’s office cited state law that covers the way ballots are counted in Wyoming. The law states that ballots designed to be counted by machine must be counted by said voting equipment and not determined subjectively by human tabulation, except in the case of damaged ballots. The secretary of state can set rules for the counting of ballots.

Full Article: Wyoming Attorney General Says Park County Cannot Count Ballots By Hand | Cowboy State Daily

Wyoming Republicans want to limit the secretary of state after Trump’s pick wins { Bob Beck/NPR

Wyoming’s likely next secretary of state, a Trump-endorsed Republican who has falsely called the 2020 election fraudulent, is drawing concerns from many of his fellow GOP lawmakers. Now those legislators are aiming to draft a bill to remove the secretary of state’s ability to oversee elections. State Rep. Chuck Gray is the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Wyoming. He does not have a general election opponent. Though state officials — including outgoing Secretary of State Ed Buchanan — maintain Wyoming elections are secure, Gray campaigned on concerns that he has about election integrity. During the primary, he told television stations KGWN and KCWY that he wants to ban ballot drop boxes and oversee other reforms. “We need all paper ballots,” he said. “The fact that a few counties have moved off paper ballots, I think is really wrong. And we need hand audits.”

Full Article: Wyoming Republicans try to curtail Trump-endorsed Chuck Gray : NPR

Wyoming Looks to Limit Secretary of State Power After 2020 Election Denier Nominated | Nick Reynolds/Newsweek

Wyoming lawmakers are looking to strip the secretary of state’s duties to oversee the state’s elections after a candidate who denies the result of the 2020 presidential election won the Republican primary to lead the office. On a voice vote Thursday, the state’s Republican-dominated Joint Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions approved a motion to draft legislation stripping the office’s sole authority to oversee the state’s elections and creating an entity overseen by all five of the state’s top elected officials. “We have a 2024 presidential election coming up. It’s going to be very contentious. And I do have some concern that the most likely person who will be our next chief elections officer, secretary of state, has alleged that there may be nefarious activities at the ballot box in Wyoming, which I don’t agree exists,” Cheyenne Republican Dan Zwonitzer said, introducing the motion. “I think our elections are safe and secure, probably more than any other state’s in the country,” he added. “And so I’m concerned, based on some of the rhetoric and the mailers I saw in regards to our most likely incoming secretary of state, that we may be in a precarious position when it comes to election administration for the next four years.”

Full Article: Wyoming Looks to Limit Secretary of State Power After 2020 Election Denial

Wyoming: Park County revisits hand counting ballots discussion | Lucy Jane Crimm Powell/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Full Article: County revisits hand counting ballots discussion | | wyomingnews.com

Wyoming: Park County denies ballot hand-count proposal | Maggie Mullen/Casper Star Tribune

Full Article: Park County denies ballot hand-count proposal | 307 Politics | trib.com

Wyoming: Crook County may have to reduce polling locations due to continued concerns over election integrity | Hugh Cook/Wyoming Public Media

Skepticism about election integrity and voter fraud persists in Wyoming, even though local and state officials say elections are safe and secure. These beliefs could lead Crook County to reduce the number of polling locations. “If people continue to be concerned about election integrity, then we would have to shut down some polling places so that we could monitor them closer,” explained Crook County Clerk Linda Fritz. There are several factors that must be taken into consideration to provide enhanced security measures, which would be costly to the county. “If the community is concerned about the security of the machines, we would have to go to buildings that are monitored daily with cameras or that have staff there to know that they’ve not been, [that] they’re locked in one room that no one else has access to until election day, like the city halls,” she said. “Crook County wouldn’t have that ability in some of the rural areas because there isn’t either internet access so that we could be monitoring them or the expense alone. To put up that kind of security would almost require us to shut down some of those rural polling places.” That extra cost, Fritz said, could reduce the 13 polling locations countywide to five or six locations. To provide a greater level of security, some counties have invested in game cameras to monitor polling sites to alleviate concerns about alleged wrongdoing, she said. But there’s no evidence of any widespread voter fraud in Crook County or Wyoming. For the level of fraud to take place that some allege has occurred, there would have to be widespread involvement and complicity with the system, she explained.

Full Article: Crook County may have to reduce polling locations due to continued concerns over election integrity | Wyoming Public Media

Wyoming: Election distrust persists, solutions mired in politics | Maggie Mullen/WyoFile

Park County Republicans want to fix a voting system election officials say isn’t broken. In an attempt to secure elections, and restore confidence in the process, they have proposed adding a layer of scrutiny by hand-counting paper ballots. Election officials question the legality of the measure and continue to assert that the 2020 election was fair, secure and accurately tallied. But they also agree it’s time to boost voter confidence — the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center found that voter confidence declined in the state after the 2020 election. The Park County conversation reflects a larger statewide discussion about election law. The Wyoming Legislature added a voter ID law in 2021, and more recently, created a felony penalty for disclosing certain voting results before the polls close. But those measures haven’t assuaged all concerns, which is where the proposal to hand-count paper ballots comes in. Wyoming already uses paper ballots, but in combination with electronic counting machines. It’s those machines that are problematic for some.

Full Article: Election distrust persists, solutions mired in politics – WyoFile

Wyoming: Group pushes to hand count Park County’s election results | CJ Baker/Pinedale Roundup

Distrustful of the voting machines used across Wyoming and other parts of the country, a group of Park County residents is making a push to review the results of this year’s primary election by hand. On Tuesday, a roomful of proponents asked Park County commissioners to allow them and other volunteers to effectively audit August’s election by hand counting the votes after the ballots are processed by the machines. South Fork resident Boone Tidwell, one of the group’s leaders, framed the request as a matter of constitutional rights and predicted some people won’t vote unless ballots are counted by hand. “Whatever decision you make today, folks, we think will have consequences. Not only here in Park County, but on a state level, and possibly a national level,” Tidwell told commissioners. “There’s a lot of attention on this particular issue right here and what we’re doing here in front of you guys. So we’re asking you to please choose wisely.” Commissioners postponed a decision to a later meeting, citing a need to get legal advice from Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric. “We have to get some answers from the county attorney,” said Commission Chairman Dossie Overfield. 

Full Article: Pinedale Roundup | Group pushes to hand count Park County’s election results

Wyoming: Officials face growing pressure to audit elections | Nick Reynolds/Casper Star Tribune

Full Article: Officials face growing pressure to audit Wyoming elections | 307 Politics | trib.com

Wyoming: Lawmakers look to change how state holds elections | Victoria Eavis/Casper State Tribune

A state legislative committee voted Monday to pursue two bills that would significantly change the way Wyoming’s statewide elections are run as soon as next year. One bill would create a ranked-choice system. The other would institute an open primary. The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivision voted to draft the bills after initially discussing legislation that would require a runoff if one candidate did not receive a certain portion of the vote. But doubts about the feasibility of implementing that approach by next year’s election led lawmakers to look elsewhere. The effort to change Wyoming’s primary elections, which has been talked about for years, is gaining traction due to the increased desire to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney and the size of the field in the last gubernatorial election. During the 2018 election, for example, Gov. Mark Gordon received less than 50% of the vote but won after several far-right candidates split the electorate. Cheney’s critics worry about a similar result in next year’s GOP House primary, which already features nine candidates.

Full Article: Lawmakers look to change how Wyoming holds statewide elections | 307 Politics | trib.com

Wyoming Voter ID bill may be tip of the iceberg for electoral bills | Billy Arnold/Jackson Hole Daily

The Wyoming Legislature is considering a voter ID law, and the majority of Teton County’s delegation is confident it will pass. They also believe more bills seeking to change election systems are coming. Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, moderated Wednesday’s all-day legislative update, in which he and Teton County’s other representatives and senators chatted with local officials, business leaders and citizens about the state of the ongoing legislative session. They talked about taxes, school funding, state school trust lands in Teton County and more. But when it came to discussing proposed changes to the state’s election system, Democrats Rep. Andy Schwartz and Sen. Mike Gierau were dismayed. “I know virtually every county clerk and election officer in the state of Wyoming,” Gierau said, “and I happen to know for a fact that they would rather lose an arm than run a bad election. It’s just absolutely incredible to me that this would even come up. “But it will,” he said, “and it will pass.” Schwartz said he thought the measure proposed could make voting “difficult.” If the voter ID bill passes, as Gierau said, Wyoming will become one of only a handful of states to require photo identification to cast a ballot. The other states are Wisconsin, Kansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia.

Full Article: Voter ID bill may be tip of the iceberg for electoral bills | Local | jhnewsandguide.com