Forty-five bills seeking to reconfigure how Wyoming runs elections were introduced to the last legislative general session. About half of them died as the session wrapped up.
A few would’ve banned ballot drop boxes and voting equipment to crack down on fraud that county clerks across the state say is rare.
But at a Lander meeting of the interim Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee on May 8, state lawmakers voted to resurrect 10 election bills from the legislative ash heap for study in the coming months.
The continued push to reshape Wyoming’s election processes comes as doubts about election integrity have increased following false claims that the 2020 general election was stolen from Pres. Donald Trump.
A chance to turn some heads
The night before the committee vote took place, electeds of all stripes rubbed shoulders and sipped seltzer at a log-layered hotel in the central Wyoming city. A copper sunset dipped below the Wind River Range. Not far from the hotel, the Popo Agie River gurgled noisily.
County clerks were set to demonstrate voting equipment to the public and to committee members the next morning, something Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander) said he hoped would show just how secure Wyoming’s elections really are.
“The facts about documented election fraud – it's almost non-existent,” said Case, who co-chairs the committee and is not a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
In fact, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, lists four documented cases of voter fraud in Wyoming since 1982, all U.S. citizens who were convicted of a crime. County clerks told Wyoming Public Radio that in general, cases of intentional voter fraud are few and far between.
And yet the committee received 34 pages of topics the public wants bills on, with the biggest percentage falling under the ‘election reform’ umbrella, according to Case.
He said specific proposals under that subject covered things like wanting to hand-count ballots and ban tabulating machines. Supporters of those kinds of proposals cite the need for security and transparency in elections.
That desire for change is striking to Case, since Trump and the state Freedom Caucus won big in Wyoming’s last cycle. Wyoming, for instance, went for Trump more than any other state in 2024.
“If the same elections produce a particular caucus to get into power for the first time, a huge victory for them, how can we say that the elections – does any one person think their own election is rigged?” he said. “Never. Does any one person think they should have won, and they didn't? I haven't really heard that. So I'm having a hard time thinking that our election process is flawed.”
Besides an investigation into ballot misprints in Weston County, Case said he hadn’t heard much about irregularities, or rigged elections, in the last cycle.
Neither had Gail Symons, who operates the Wyoming civics website Civics307 and ran unsuccessfully for a House seat in Sheridan in the last primary. She said she planned to testify against more election overhaul bills at the meeting.
“The fact that there were 45 election bills [in the last session],” said Symons. “I'm not going to say it infuriates me. I find it very frustrating, because two thirds of them were to address problems that don't exist.”
Fears of immigrants coming to Wyoming illegally and casting ballots are misguided, she added.
“It is irrational for them to vote, and yet that is used as an excuse as to why we should make things harder for all the people who do have a right to vote,” she said. “I get that they don't like having that being called voter suppression. Okay, if you don't want me to call it voter suppression, I won't, but you're creating barriers to voting that are unnecessary.”
The American Immigration Council reported undocumented immigrants made up about 1% of Wyoming’s population in 2016.
Moment of truth
The next morning, members of the committee took their seats in a room full to the brim with election skeptics and supporters alike.
Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese sat at a table in the front of the room and narrated Election Day procedures as someone fed paper ballots into hulking, black and gray tabulating machines.
She explained ballot chain of custody as they go from voters’ hands, to the machines, to USB memory sticks, to county election headquarters. No part of the process involves connection to the internet, she said.
The mock election she demonstrated was based on voters’ favorite animals, creating an opportunity for levity in an otherwise tense situation.
“Cat, eight. Chicken, seven. Gerbil, five. Horse, four. Tarantula, three. Write in, six,” said Freese.
“No dogs?” Case asked.
“No dogs.”
“There’s something wrong with this election,” he quipped back, to laughter.
Then lawmakers on the committee filled out paper ballots of their own.
But in the hallway during a break, Rep. Nina Webber (R-Cody), a Freedom Caucus endorsee, said while she appreciated the demonstration, it didn’t change her mind.
“The real questions have to do with, what about inside of the machine and programming the machine, and can we get in there and take the machines apart, and are there any modems that can be attached?” said Webber.
She said she hadn’t heard about the Heritage Foundation’s list of Wyoming voter fraud when asked about it by WPR.
“You're saying there’s not a lot of voter fraud going on,” she said. “I'm not saying that. I’m thinking that we don’t want voter fraud.”
In an interview after the meeting, Freese responded to Webber’s concerns about voting equipment.
“According to the state contract, no, clerks don’t have the ability to get into the machines, because the maintenance on them will be voided,” she said. “There are no cords for [attaching] a modem, and our machines don’t have modems.”
But when the committee gaveled back in, it was clear Webber wasn’t the only one left doubting.
Another caucus endorsee, Rep. Joe Webb (R-Lyman), successfully motioned for the group to draft 10 election bills that died in the last session but could now make a reappearance next year. They are:
- HB 131 - Ballot drop boxes-prohibition.
- HB 245 - Pen and paper ballots.
- HB 238 - Ballot harvesting prohibition.
- HB 217 - Random hand count audits of election results.
- HB 232 - Elections-hand counting for recounts.
- HB 307 - Poll watchers-polling station observation.
- HB 173 - Independent candidate requirements.
- HB 278 - Elections-voting machine and voting system tests.
- Combination of HB 160 - Voter identification-revisions and HB 206 - Elections-acceptable identification revisions-2.
- Cleanup of HB 156 - Proof of voter residency-registration qualifications.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, had previously encouraged the committee to study 20 election integrity bills, some of which fall under his election integrity agenda. But a few on the committee felt that would be too much.
After the meeting gaveled out, WPR sat down with Rep. Christopher Knapp (R-Gillette), who leads the House side of the Joint Corporations Committee. He’s also the vice chair of the Freedom Caucus.
The reason freshman lawmakers like Webb and Webber want to pass election reform comes down to what they heard while knocking on voters’ doors, he said.
“They were fresh off going door to door, right? Election integrity for that specific year was off the charts,” said Knapp.
He disagreed with critics who say some of these bills will disproportionately suppress women, young people and voters of color from casting ballots. A federal lawsuit making similar claims about a new voter residency and U.S. citizenship requirement was filed this week in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming. In an attempt to stop the law from going into effect, it names Gray and every county clerk as defendants.
“It's my job to make sure that everybody that can vote can vote, and that we don't impede that, that we make it as easy as possible, but don't cancel their vote out by allowing it to be so easy that fraud can take place,” Knapp said.
For him, even the theoretical possibility of voter fraud was enough to merit another pass at significantly reshaping policy, using taxpayer dollars for the committee to do so. Knapp sponsored a bill that would have outlawed the use of ballot drop boxes in the last session.
“I can't say that there's massive fraud in Wyoming,” Knapp said. “I can't say that there's no fraud in Wyoming. All I can say is that the clerks do an excellent job.”
Knapp’s support for county clerks at the same time as he questions the integrity of the process they run deflates clerks like Freese.
“Being a long term election official, I’m disheartened,” she said. “By jumping to conclusions on elections that have not been challenged as not correct, I’m disheartened. Suddenly, we will listen to things that might be, could be, and I’m not seeing any facts from anybody that says why the machine does not work. I’m disappointed that the committee did not ask anybody, ‘Give me facts as to why this last election did not work.’”
Knapp voted alongside most of the committee to study draft bills this interim that would ban ballot boxes, restrict independent candidates and make it harder to vote with a student ID. The interim Joint Corporations Committee is scheduled to reconvene on August 14 and 15 in Casper.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
