2024 Elections Guide
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The Road to Cheyenne:
Our series breaking down races to watch, voter perceptions and politics in Wyoming
Recent Stories
Voting FAQs
Common Questions About Voting and Election Security
For answers to more frequently asked questions, see the Secretary of State’s FAQs here.
Table of Contents:
- When and where do I vote?
- How do I find out what’s on the ballot?
- How do I register to vote? And do I need to?
- ID Requirements
- Can I vote absentee or early, and when do I need to return my ballot?
- I work on election day. Does my boss have to give me time off?
- How do election officers ensure voter registration lists are up to date so that people who are not authorized to vote are not voting?
- What kind of software/hardware is being used to count ballots? Will they be hand counted as well?
- What security measures are in place to protect the secrecy of the ballot and prevent under/over counting?
- When will the results become official? How long does it take?
- How do election officials certify the election results? What happens if they don’t certify the election results?
- How do election officials ensure that an absentee or mail ballot has come from a legitimate voter and not been tampered with?
- What about voter fraud? How do election officials prevent it?
Voting
When and where do I vote?
The 2024 general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or until the last person in line at 7 p.m. has voted.
Find your polling place by using your address here.
How do I find out what’s on the ballot?
Your county clerk will publish a sample ballot or a proclamation showing local propositions. Check their website starting Tues., Oct. 22.
Information about which polling location you should use, how to vote early or absentee, and results will also be posted there.
How do I register to vote? And do I need to?
If you have not voted since before the November 2022 election, your voter registration was canceled and you will need to re-register. Same if you’ve moved or changed your name. You can check your voter registration status with Vote.org, or contact your county clerk. Find contact information for your county clerk here.
Except for the 14 days leading up to election day, eligible Wyomingites can register to vote by mail or at your county or municipal clerk’s office.
Starting 14 days before the election, you may register at the Elections Office or change your registration, but you must cast your vote at that time (vote early). Bring your ID.
Wyoming has election day registration. That means you can register and vote at your polling location. There may be a line, so please allow extra time.
Wyoming does not offer online registration and you are not automatically registered to vote when you get a Wyoming driver’s license. To vote, you must be 18 years old on election day, a U.S. citizen and a Wyoming resident.
To register, you will need identification:
One of the following:
● United States Passport;
● Valid driver’s license or ID card issued by any state;
● ID issued by a federal, state or local government/agency;
● Photo ID card issued by the University of Wyoming, a Wyoming community college, or a Wyoming public school;
● United States Military ID; or
● ID card issued to a Dependent of a member of the United States Armed Forces.
OR
Any two or more of the following:
● Certification of United States Citizenship;
● Certificate of Naturalization;
● United States Military Draft Record;
● Voter’s Registration Card from another state or county;
● United States Social Security Card;
● Certification of Birth Abroad issued by the Department of State;
● Original or certified copy of a birth certificate bearing an official seal; and
● Any other form of identification issued by an official agency of the United States or a State.
If your voter registration is challenged, you may be asked to show further identification if the address on your ID is no longer valid or if it’s not included. The following are acceptable proof of residency:
- current utility bill
- current bank statement
- current government check
- current paycheck
- any other current government document showing your name and current address.
ID Requirements
Wyoming voters are required to show an acceptable form of identification when voting.
Valid forms of identification to vote are:
- WY Driver’s License or ID Card
- Tribal ID Card
- Valid US Passport
- US Military Card
- DL or ID Card from Another State
- University of Wyoming Student ID
- Wyoming Community College Student ID
- Wyoming Public School Student ID
- Valid Wyoming Concealed Firearm Permit
- Valid Medicare Insurance Card*
- Valid Medicaid Insurance Card*
*Medicare and Medicaid insurance cards will no longer be an acceptable form of identification for voting purposes after Dec. 31, 2029.
Can I vote absentee or early, and when do I need to return my ballot?
Yes! Registered voters can request an absentee ballot be mailed to them via a phone call to the county clerk, through mail, email or in person. You do not need a reason to request an absentee ballot.
Absentee voting begins 28 days prior to the election or 45 days for military or overseas voters.
All absentee ballots must be returned to the county clerk’s office by 7 p.m. on Nov. 5. Ballots that arrive after the deadline will not be counted.
The U.S. Postal Service advises to mail your ballot 7 days before the election.
New voters, or voters updating their registration, can register and vote on election day at their polling place. Find your polling place by using your address here.
Some counties in Wyoming also have early in-person voting. Early voting starts 28 days before the election and ends the day before. Check your county clerk’s website or contact them directly to find out if that’s an option and where to go. You will need an ID to vote.
I work on election day. Does my boss have to give me time off?
Wyoming law entitles voters to one hour, other than the meal hour, to vote. However, not all categories of employees are covered, like some federal workers or those who have three or more consecutive non-working hours during the time polls are open.
Election Security FAQ
The answers to the questions below are compiled from multiple county clerk's responses to WPM.
How do election officers ensure voter registration lists are up to date so that people who are not authorized to vote are not voting?
Wyoming’s statewide voter registration system is called WyoReg. It’s a top-down statewide system where each county has direct access to a single centralized database. It performs an automatic check when someone registers to vote to ensure they’re not already registered. If a voter is already registered in another state and moves to Wyoming, that voter may be asked to provide proof of residency when registering. Wyoming will then send a notification to the voter’s previous state to ensure that the voter indeed has moved.
WyoReg is linked to several state departments to ensure voter rolls are accurate. This includes the Wyoming Department of Transportation to match driver’s licenses and IDs, the Department of Health’s Vital Records to get death notices, and the Division of Criminal Investigation for felons who are not allowed to vote.
“We also look at the newspapers and cut out obituaries and make sure we take out those that have died if they didn’t come over on the Vital Records list,” Julie Freese, Fremont County clerk, told WPR.
“If an individual is not qualified to vote (i.e. they have died, committed a felony) WyoReg will remove that person from the voting rolls. When an individual registers to vote they swear an oath that they are qualified to do so. If that person falsely swore under oath that act is a felony,” said Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk.
In addition, under state law, voters who are registered but did not vote in a recent statewide election are sent a purge notice in the mail. If they do not respond within 20 days, their registration is deactivated. These so-called voter roll purges happen every two years on even years.
To keep track on election day, Converse County Clerk Karen Rimmer said her office prints lists of voters the Friday before the election, and shares supplemental lists with precincts throughout election day to keep track of who already voted using an absentee ballot.
What kind of software/hardware is being used to count ballots? Will they be hand counted as well?
The Wyoming Secretary of State’s office contracted with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) in 2020 for election equipment for all 23 Wyoming counties.
All counties have the DS200 machine, which scans and tabulates paper ballots. A handful of counties have the larger DS450 to count absentee ballots, and Natrona County uses the DS850.
Voters with disabilities or those who request can use a marking device called an Expressvote. The machine has a touch screen to select choices, and the device prevents overvoting (marking too many choices) and will warn about undervoting (not marking enough or zero choices). The machine prints a voter’s selections on a paper that goes through the DS200 tabulating machine at the polls.
Wyoming counties use ES&S’s Electionware software to manage elections. None of the equipment is connected to the internet.
Wyoming election clerks do not hand count ballots on election day. However, the number of ballots that have been sent and received by each clerk will be reconciled by hand.
What security measures are in place to protect the secrecy of the ballot and prevent under/over counting?
Ballots cannot be traced back to a particular voter, under state law. Election officials use a few strategies, depending on how someone voted, to ensure secrecy.
Voters submitting their ballot on election day feed their ballot directly into the tabulating machine. No one sees their marked ballot unless they choose to show it.
If a ballot is mailed, “each clerk utilizes a board for the processing of absentee ballots. That board utilizes envelope opening procedures to ensure no board member sees how an individual elector voted,” said Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin. “If the ballot is voted in an early voting method, the ballots are fed directly into the tabulating equipment by the voter. That equipment tabulates those ballots on election day so no results could possibly be known prior to election day.”
Election officials also maintain updated lists of who’s already voted.
“When a voter checks in to vote, either during early voting or on election day, our system indicates whether they have already cast a ballot and if they have, we are automatically alerted, and they are not allowed to get another ballot,” Albany County Clerk Kayla White told WPR.
Election officials also have robust chain of custody policies, logs and documentation for all election processes. That includes issuing, receiving and tabulating absentee ballots.
When will the results become official? How long does it take?
On election night, county clerks and the Secretary of State’s office release unofficial results on their websites, often by 9 p.m. Counties are required to notify the secretary of state about unofficial results coming in after 10:30 p.m.
You’ll also see news outlets like the Associated Press “calling” winners and losers. WPR will report AP’s race calls on election night, and also the Secretary of State office’s unofficial and official results when they’re available.
Read more about how the AP declares winners here.
The United States doesn’t have a nationwide body that collects and releases election results. Instead, journalists gather data from local and state agencies that report election results publicly. The AP gathers this data and makes it available to the public and to other newsrooms, to count the votes and then declare winners. They’ve been doing this in presidential elections since 1848. Learn more about that role here.
Results become official after the canvass of the general election.
At the county level, this happens no later than the Friday after the election. Canvassing boards are made up of the county clerk and a Republican and Democratic representative. The political party representatives are appointed by the clerk. They must take the oath of office. It usually takes about an hour to announce official results, then the county clerk notifies the secretary of state.
The state canvassing board certifies results the second Wednesday after an election. The board is made up of the secretary of state (chair), governor, state treasurer and state auditor. The board reviews voter turnout, the post-election audit, recounts, results, and offers opportunities for public comment. See minutes from the certification of the 2024 primary election here.
Under state law, automatic recounts are required when the margin is less than 1 percent of votes cast. The recount happens within 72 hours of a mandate from election officials. Recounts can also be requested within two days of the state or county canvass, and must be completed within 72 hours of the request. The requester pays for the recount, but those costs can be refunded if the recount changes the outcome.
How do election officials certify the election results? What happens if they don’t certify the election results?
Election results are certified by the canvassing board at the county and state level.
Under Wyoming law, the canvass board reviews things like how many voters voted at each polling location, how many voters voted absentee, were there any successful write-in candidates, and were there any provisional ballots that are eligible to be accepted. This also includes a post-election ballot audit.
“A canvass board can choose to not certify an election, but only if there is a material error in the conduct of the election and if that error involves a number of votes that would impact a race,” said Park County Clerk Colleen Renner. “If a canvass board takes this route, then a special election would be held.”
How do election officials ensure that an absentee or mail ballot has come from a legitimate voter and not been tampered with?
All absentee ballots must be requested by the voter. When a voter requests for an absentee ballot, they are required to disclose their name, physical address and date of birth. If any of these do not match what is in the registration system, then the voter must update their information with their county clerk prior to being issued an absentee ballot.
When an absentee ballot is issued, there is a label that is placed on the outside of the envelope that has the voter’s name and address, along with a unique barcode that is generated by WyoReg when the label is printed.
“We do have some family who order ballots for family members but they cannot pick it up unless they have a note from that voter saying it is ok to pick it up—otherwise we will send it only to the voter,” said Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese. “ID’s are required to pick up an absentee and we ask a lot of personal questions about that voter to verify it is them. Since this is the way this is done, the voter is very cognizant that they have a ballot coming and they are to fill it out and make sure it gets back to us. IF for any reason, a voter comes to us and says they didn’t vote an absentee ballot that we have in our possession, we will investigate this and request prosecution if the perpetrator is found.”
Absentee ballots must be signed and dated by the voter on the back of the envelope.
“The most frequent scenario that we run into is spouses who accidentally signed the wrong envelope,” said Park County Clerk Colleen Renner. “When we come across an issue, we always contact the voter and allow them the opportunity to correct the error so their ballot can be accepted.”
Clerks are not required in the state to verify the signatures on the ballots. But Converse County clerk Karen Rimmer said, “For me, if there was a question on a signed absentee envelope, I would compare it to the signed registration form on file.”
What about voter fraud? How do election officials prevent it?
The United States voting process isn’t immune to problems, and it’s likely some things may go wrong on Election Day – whether it's long lines at polling places, running out of ballots or temporarily downed voting machines. However, these problems will not be unique to this election – there have always been glitches in our election process. Despite some imperfections, the system reliably produces certified outcomes thanks to many safeguards in place. Read more about it here
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