Wyoming

Wyoming Lawmakers Advance Hand-Count Recount Bill Despite County Clerks’ Objections | David Madison/Cowboy State Daily

House Bill 52 cleared the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee on Wednesday with broad support, overhauling Wyoming’s recount process to allow hand counting of ballots in close races. The county clerks who would have to carry it out, however, say the bill is a recipe for failure. The measure, a product of the Joint Corporations Committee’s 2025 interim work, redefines a “recount” in Wyoming law. Currently, the statute defines a recount as “the processing of ballots through the tabulation system for an additional time or times” — essentially running ballots back through the same machine. HB 52 changes that definition to include “the counting of ballots by hand.” Read Article

Wyoming: Undeterred by tight timeline, lawmakers charge ahead with election reform | Maggie Mullen/WyoFile

Wyoming lawmakers will once again consider a slate of bills to remake the state’s election system when the Legislature convenes in February. In the legislative off-season, lawmakers in two committees voted to sponsor 14 bills tied to elections. The legislation ranges from restricting how ballots can be returned to county clerks, limiting acceptable voter identification, banning ballot drop boxes, mandating automatic hand recounts in certain instances and upping the campaign filing requirements for independent candidates. Most of the legislation comes from the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, which held its last off-season meetings Monday and Tuesday in Cheyenne. Elections were the committee’s top priority ahead of the 2026 session. Read Article

Wyoming lawmakers advance election reform bills despite feasibility warnings | Klark Byrd/Casper Oil City News

The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee voted Monday to sponsor a sweeping package of six election reform bills that boost manual ballot counting and expand poll watcher authority. The bills advanced despite stern warnings from county clerks that the changes could prove logistically impossible to implement by the 2026 election cycle. Critics argued the package restricts ballot access and competition for independent candidates. The committee’s action sponsors six working draft measures that focus on shifting the election process toward increased hand counting of ballots and enhanced oversight. Read Article

Wyoming: Weston County election snafu renews calls for hand counting election results | Maggie MullenWyoFile

A miscount in Weston County’s 2024 general election and the ensuing fallout over the last year have refueled calls for banning electronic election equipment in Wyoming. The state already relies on paper ballots in all but one county, but such a move would make Wyoming the only state in the country to count all its ballots by hand. “I’m so thankful that I work with legislators that are serious about making sure that we get good answers for what happened, and we don’t blow this off,” Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, told the Wyoming Legislature’s Weston County Clerk 2024 General Election Subcommittee as it met Monday in Casper. Reade Article

Wyoming lawmakers seek to ban ballot drop boxes, again | Jasmine Hall/Jackson Hole News and Guide

After a failed attempt this past winter, Wyoming lawmakers are once again seeking to ban county clerks and election officials from collecting absentee ballots using drop boxes. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has been pushing for the ban since he took office, and said it’s a “key priority to advance election integrity, ensuring voter confidence and transparency in Wyoming elections.” On Friday, he told the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee that unattended and unstaffed ballot drop boxes were vulnerable to attacks of terrorism. Read Article

Wyoming: Judge Dismisses Challenge to Proof of Citizenship Law, Leaving Barriers for Voters in Place | Yunior Rivas/Democracy Docket

A federal judge dismissed a major lawsuit challenging Wyoming’s new proof of citizenship voter registration law. In an order issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl, appointed by former President Barack Obama, ruled the plaintiffs in the case failed to show they would be personally harmed by the law, which took effect earlier this month. The law requires voters to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers, in order to register to vote. Voting rights advocates have warned it could disenfranchise eligible voters who don’t have matching or ready access to those documents including women, rural and low-income voters. Read Article

Wyoming Secretary of state says state needs to move toward banning electronic voting equipment | Jasmine Hall/The Jackson Hole News & Guide

After walking into a room filled with Lander and Riverton residents wearing “HANDS OFF MY VOTE” and “We trust our election machines” stickers on Thursday, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said the state needs to move forward with legislation banning electronic voting equipment. House Bill 215 seeks to switch Wyoming over to an entirely hand-counting system, as does Senate File 184. Rep. Scott Smith, R-Lingle, sponsored HB 215 during the 2025 legislative session, but the bill died early in the lawmaking process. Gray put it on a long list of bills from the past session that he would like the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee to take up this year. The committee held its first gathering to prepare for the 2026 session on Thursday in Lander. The room was packed for the first six hours of the meeting when an election equipment demonstration was put on by clerks and the Secretary of State’s Office laid out its priorities. Read Article

Wyoming lawmakers, Gray still harping on election integrity | Legislature | Jasmine Hall/Jackson Hole News and Guide

Election integrity will continue to be an issue for the Wyoming Legislature this year. The Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee will kick off its first meeting of the legislative interim with an election demonstration from the county clerks and a presentation from Secretary of State Chuck Gray. As clerks work throughout the year with the committee, the County Clerks Association has four priorities: testing and auditing, security of election officials, voter list maintenance and absentee ballot security. Ervin also expects clerks to take on more of an active role than in the past and be “a little bit more outspoken.” The county clerks pushed back against assertions from the secretary of state and other critics about how they run elections.The association has set a standard of only testifying on whether the clerks could implement a bill, not whether they agreed or disagreed with a policy. Resad Article

Wyoming becomes first state to enact citizenship proof law for all elections, including federal | Natalia Mittelstadt/Just The News

Wyoming has become the first state to enact a law requiring proof of citizenship in all elections, including federal. The bill was passed by the state legislature and became law without the governor’s signature. The law, House Bill 156, requires voters to provide proof of citizenship and Wyoming residency, in addition to instituting a requirement to reside in the state for a period of time before being eligible to register to vote. Other states that require proof of citizenship for voters do not apply the requirement to federal elections. Read Article

Wyoming: Bills banning ballot drop boxes, touch screen voting machines fail in Senate | Hannah Shields/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

A majority of Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s election integrity bills died Friday night after failing to pass first reading in the Wyoming Senate, including two that threatened to “upend” Laramie County elections, according to County Clerk Debra Lee. A large number of election-related bills were filed this session, making up 8% of total proposed legislation, according to WyoFile.com. House Bill 245, “Pen and paper ballots,” would have removed touch-screen voting machines that have been used by Laramie County voters for decades. Lee previously told lawmakers this bill would “upend” elections in her county. Read Article

Wyoming: Bill requiring voters to use a pen-and-paper ballot passes House | Hannah Shields/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Laramie County voters have used touch-screen voting machines in their local elections for years, but a bill passed by the Wyoming House of Representatives on Friday would require voters to use a paper ballot. House 245, “Pen and paper ballots,” requires all county clerks to set the default voting method to paper ballots, with an exception provided to voters who have a disability. Laramie County is the only one of Wyoming’s 23 counties to use touch-screen voting machines. Rep. Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette, the sponsor of the bill, said the state needs to have uniform election laws across all 23 counties. Secretary of State Chuck Gray previously expressed support for Knapp’s bill during a House Appropriations Committee meeting, saying he found Laramie County’s elections “unsatisfying.” Read Article

Wyoming: Bills To Ban Voting Machines Killed In Committee | Leo Wolfson/Cowboy State Daily

Two separate committees in the Wyoming Legislature voted down matching bills on Wednesday night that would have banned all voting machines and required hand count elections in Wyoming. The House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee voted the bill down 8-1 while the same Senate committee did not take a vote on a matching bill at all. House Corporations Chair Rep. Chris Knapp, R-Gillette, said even had they advanced House Bill 215 on Wednesday, he did not believe that it would have gone any farther than that when considering the high quantity of bills the House is considering right now. Read Article

Wyoming: County clerks, national experts oppose electronic election equipment ban | Jasmine Hall/Jackson Hole News & Guide

Two bills that would ban electronic voting equipment and force the entire state to hand count ballots are working their way through the Legislature. The legislation faces scrutiny from national election experts and Wyoming’s county clerks, but has garnered support from those who question the security of electronic tabulators. Mark Lindeman, policy and strategic director for Verified Voting, said the state couldn’t get “more extreme than banning tabulators.” Wyoming is nearly singular in its anxiety. The only similar legislation Lindeman has seen introduced in a state Legislature is in North Dakota, which would require a software system that is not possible to implement. He compared an attempt to restrict electronic election equipment to banning cars and forcing people to walk everywhere — because of the risks of driving. “It’s a tremendous training problem, recruitment problem, coordination problem,” he said about hand counting. “It’s one problem after another.” His group wants to see a post-election audit to ensure tabulators are performing the way they’re supposed to instead, but a bill that would have allowed for hand counting audits died. Read Article

Wyoming: Hand counting votes? Ban on ballot drop boxes? Election bills move through Legislature | Chris Clements/Wyoming Public Media

A slate of bills aiming to change the way Wyoming conducts elections is gaining ground in the state Legislature. Highlights include a prohibition on the use of ballot drop boxes by county clerks, the authorization of hand count audits post-elections and a new requirement for Laramie County to use pen and paper ballots for its election process. Many are supported by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its ally, Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Read Article

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