Ahead of the 2026 general election, Wyoming Public Radio and KHOL Jackson offered all candidates in competitive races for statewide and federal offices 20-minute interviews to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their positions. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Robert Short is the Republican Party’s nominee running for Wyoming secretary of state. His campaign website is www.shortforstate.com. He spoke with WPR’s Melodie Edwards.
Click here to listen to a special episode of Open Spaces previewing the races for statewide and federal offices.
Melodie Edwards: To start, do you mind just saying your name and your title?
Robert Short: My name is Robert Short. I am currently a county commissioner in Converse County, Wyoming, and I am the Republican nominee for secretary of state for the great state of Wyoming.
ME: I wonder if you can start by just talking a little bit about your experience and how that work that you have done has prepared you to lead the office of secretary of state.
RS: Great question. My experience is pretty vast, I think, not to sound egocentric or egotistical. I have a vast amount of international and domestic business experience transcending a multitude of industries, from agriculture to energy development to scientific research, hospitality and tourism, which I think really help.
I also have experience in manufacturing and retail and even in the restauranting world. So I think that that in [and] of itself is a nice wide kind of swath of business experience that I think helps my understanding of how to relate to different business concerns across our state, as well as look at different opportunities that the state may see that could potentially have positive impacts, especially for our younger folks.
That, coupled with my last almost 12 years of being a county commissioner, I think really helps me understand what the governmental role looks like and how to interact effectively with different stakeholders across different scenarios. I've served as a board member for a multitude of boards across the state – domestic violence, sexual assault, water quality, air quality, land quality, energy and the environment, workforce development, as well as a national board for the National Association of Counties, as vice chair for technologies telecommunications.
I think maybe very importantly, I was the driving force behind an initiative that has become an actual functioning process, and that is what we call the Wyoming County Commissioners Association Congressional Tour Initiative, where we bring staffers out from D.C. every year and bring them to a different part of Wyoming and educate them with boots on the ground, regular everyday humans to help understand how policy considerations in D.C. have real-world impact in Wyoming. In doing so, [we] try to help develop relationships so that folks in D.C., staffers who are considering policy can have a person, a group to reach out to in Wyoming to say, ‘Hey we're thinking about doing this. What are your thoughts? How might that impact you?’
As well, I'm the vice president of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association currently. So, I feel like the whole of these experiences puts me in a great position, I believe, to be an effective leader who really understands a wide array of different concerns and viewpoints and be able to listen to all those viewpoints without a particular bias. I think that's what puts me in a great position for this.
ME: What's the secretary of state's role when it comes to elections and ensuring Wyomingites are aware of their civic rights and responsibilities?
RS: That brings me to a point that I didn't even mention in that last long-winded answer, and that is the chief elections officer. I have served as an election judge multiple times, so I've really been on the front lines of elections to see how elections are run here in Wyoming. As well as a county commissioner on the other side of the equation, understanding what the processes look like, the timings associated with it, the funding mechanisms that are necessary, the collection of folks who are really the heart and soul of running elections in our state.
I think that as a good secretary of state, I partner with my county clerks, because the county clerks are charged with operating elections in the state, and I think that that's something that I absolutely take as a sacred opportunity. But also helping educate young people about what does the process of voting look like. Everything from registering to vote, to researching candidates, to actually getting into the ballot booth to cast your ballot. That's something that I'm very passionate about. My own kid, she's 25 now. I say kid, but she's finishing grad school overseas. She doesn't see voting as a right. She sees it as a responsibility, that she is so invested in making sure that her voice is heard. And I want other young people to recognize and to have that kind of opportunity to grow that passion about having their voices matter.
ME: Your predecessor has worked closely with the federal government, including sharing voter registration data and running registrants through a national database to check for citizenship. Do you plan to continue that precedent?
RS: I think that's a two-part question to me. As far as sharing voter data with the federal government, I think that's antithetical, and I think it's honestly an infraction on a few different levels, not the least of which is the Constitution clearly delineates the responsibility for the operation of elections, the process of elections, being delegated to the states. To somehow think that it's okay to submit all of our voter roll data outside of what is available to you and me and any other person who asks for voter roll data, but to submit that voter roll data with PII, that personally identifiable information, I think that's disingenuous and borderline criminal, especially since Wyoming statute says we shall not do such a thing. So that part, not interested.
As far as running voter roll information through, I think the acronym is SAVE – and not to be confused with the SAVE Act, but a database that checks for, I think, green card holders, H-1B visa holders, folks who are resident aliens. I don't find that to be particularly nefarious or derogatory, because only citizens should be voting in elections is the way I feel about it.
I guess that's a long-winded way of saying I would probably utilize whatever tools are necessary to ensure that we are doing our best to ensure that only citizens are voting.
ME: Let's do rapid fire [questions]. In a couple words, can you respond to these next few questions?
RS: Sure.
ME: Do you support secure ballot drop boxes?
RS: 100%.
ME: Do you support mail-in ballots?
RS: 100%.
ME: Do you support voters being able to change their political party at any time?
RS: 100%.
ME: Do you support absentee voting for anyone who wants it?
RS: 100%.
ME: Do you support hand counting of ballots?
RS: Now, that is an interesting one. If there are less than 10 ballots, sure, because I only have 10 fingers. I think that tabulating with machines is a far more accurate way to tabulate votes. However, if we need to do a simple audit to ensure that we can tell ourselves, ‘Yes, the machines counted just as accurately as we might,’ wonderful.
ME: Okay, that's our rapid fire section. Now, what, if anything, would you like to change about our primary system?
RS: At this juncture, nothing. Yeah, nothing at this moment.
ME: Do you have concerns about what some call ballot harvesting, one person or a group delivering other people's ballots to the polls? If so, how should that be addressed?
RS: So, this is an interesting thing, because I really believe that we should be making voting as easy as possible, and, obviously, only for valid constituents, people who are legal to vote. But I think about people who are in mobility-limited situations. Let's take, for example, assisted living facilities. How on earth are folks who are wheelchair-bound, let's say, as just one example, who live in an assisted living facility, how are they supposed to be able to cast their ballot?
If we disenfranchise those folks because we say, ‘Well, you have to march over to the ballot box or the courthouse or wherever to drop off your ballot,’ I find that insulting. Those folks worked hard to give us the opportunity to be where we're at right now. So, in situations where we can obviously, justifiably say these folks need a mechanism in order for them to be able to cast their ballot, and we can securely say, ‘These ballots we know are pure, they were collected under a specific set of guidelines, and they were handled through a chain of custody that ensures that they weren't bastardized or otherwise altered en route from the person casting the ballot to the person tabulating the ballot,’ yeah, I am absolutely in favor of that.
Now, for Maggie Mullen to go running up and down the street in Greybull because she happens to be in Greybull and is volunteering to collect ballots, I may be a little less inclined to say that that's something we should just open arms embrace immediately. We do need to have some processes in place to ensure that the purity of the ballot is not corrupted.
ME: Wyoming has a business-friendly system for anonymously setting up shop in Wyoming for $50 to $100 a pop. That's led to tens of thousands of new businesses registering here, often without actually stepping foot in Wyoming. What are the benefits and the problems with Wyoming's less strict rules about registering businesses in the state?
RS: Obviously, the benefits are just what you said. It's simple to set up an LLC in Wyoming, and it's easy to then pop up your storefront, whether it's virtual or brick-and-mortar, et cetera.
The downside is exactly what you said. It's too easy to do that for some folks who may be willing to just utilize our very stringent privacy laws in order to shield themselves from any kind of responsibility associated with performing whatever it is they do business-wise.
I'll just use a simple example we've had in my part of the state right here in Hailstone Alley. Obviously, we get massive storms on a periodic basis, and we've had companies show up and, miraculously, they can show up at your front door with a certificate that says they're a Wyoming business and, ‘By golly, we are going to replace your roof [for] half the cost of anybody else, and all we need is for you to give us a 50% down right now, and we will be back in week, a few weeks, to take care of your roof.’ And lo and behold, they never show up again. And, unfortunately, because they're setting themselves up through a registered agent in Wyoming, there is no recourse for anyone who was defrauded, because there's no way to find out who actually was at the helm of that fraudulent operation.
We need to address that in a way that doesn't hurt legitimate businesses, but also makes sure that less than desirable actors are put on notice that we're not going to accept that kind of behavior in our great state.
ME: Lawmakers have considered, but not passed, bills in recent years that would require registered agents to share more detailed information about a business's owners. Would you push for legislation like that, or how do you think lawmakers or your office could address this?
RS: That's really a great question, and I think the right approach to that is a consortium of concerned stakeholders who we can convene together to actually develop a strategy, a path forward, so that we can codify a reasonable, balanced approach to solving this problem. Everybody's going to have a little less absolute positive feelings about [it], because, generally speaking, the best solution's one where nobody's actually very satisfied.
ME: A lot of land in Wyoming is owned by LLCs. What's the relationship between private property, privacy, and also just transparency and accountability for land stewardship?
RS: Obviously, private property rights in our state is supreme. I think it's important that we maintain that, because, quite honestly, we're a legacy state in a lot of regards, that we have multi-generational ranches and farms here, and those folks, to have them somehow impugned by maybe some less than desirable behaviors on behalf of some other operators would be disingenuous to who we are as a people, as our culture.
However, that all said, of course, some laws were passed recently to ensure that state actors who may be considered threats to us are not in the position to acquire properties that could be sensitive, both from a security perspective and from a perspective that could cause harm. I think that, again, we have to honor private property rights, but when it comes to investigating potential businesses that may be fraudulently operating, their private property rights should not be a shield against which they can deflect any inquisition into their behaviors or operations.
ME: Do you think that the office has enough staff to handle business registrations and oversight?
RS: That's a great question, and not really having been able to communicate directly with them at this point, because that would be not really appropriate yet because I'm a nominee, not an elect, I cannot say with specificity. I know that they are overwhelmed, and I think there may be multiple ways of helping reduce some of that burden.
Obviously, software, technology is a piece that is very important to me. Utilization and implementation of technologies that are both secure and well-proven can help efficiencies. But by the same token, ultimately, eyes from a human are critical for anything that we're doing. We don't trust AI, for example, to make decisions for us. We use it as a tool, not as a decision maker. So, I think that [you should] ask me this question again towards the end of November, and maybe I'll have a better feel for that.
ME: Wyoming residents have not infrequently found their addresses being used by a business that they don't have any connection to. What's the secretary of state's role in ensuring that that doesn't happen?
RS: I think the secretary of state should be the first point of contact when a person finds out that their address is being used in a fraudulent manner, because, let's face it, if you have nothing to do with that business, and I'm using Melodie Edwards' home address as the registration address for my business, then immediately I should be put on notice that your business is under threat of being administratively dissolved for fraudulent activities, because, obviously, you are using an address that is not connected to you.
ME: One of the phrases that you have used throughout your campaign is that it's important to make the secretary of state's office boring again. How would you go about doing that?
RS: My position has been and continues to be that I'm not really interested in accolades and awards and getting in front of the camera to espouse my greatness. It's to quietly do the work of the people and just keep my head down and do the job. Engage with anyone who wants to engage, but making a press release every time I change my tie doesn't really fit my style. I don't believe that it's necessary to have theatrics in order to have a performance. Do the job and just continue plugging along, doing the work of the people, rather than looking for opportunities to sing my self-aggrandizing praises to anyone.
ME: We just have one minute left. One last question might be: What would you say when you have had conflicts with some of the people that you work with, what's your style, in terms of how you deal with conflict?
RS: It's really important to understand the other person, the other side, the opposing view that's driving the conflict. I believe wholeheartedly I got two small holes on the side of my head and one great big one on the front of it, and that should be used much less than those. Understand where the problem's coming from. That's the fundamental basis of problem-solving. I don't have the answers to everything, and if I'm unwilling to listen to what the root cause [of the] problem is from your perspective, then I'm absolutely disingenuous in my willingness to solve problems. So listen first.
You can find more conversations with Wyoming’s candidates on our How do I vote? page.
