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.
HB 232 - Elections-hand counting for recounts
One bill, HB 232, would require people, not machines, to count ballots after an election if the difference in vote tallies between candidates in statewide, federal and legislative races get within a certain margin of each other.
“In this interim, I had a large number of constituents in my county come say, ‘Hey, we're really concerned that there's not a mechanism in our statutes for a hand count audit,’” testified Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) to the House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 27. Haroldson is the third-highest ranking Republican in the House and a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
“We don't even have a mechanism to check other than running it right back through that same tabulating machine. We don't have a mechanism to check these elections [for fraud],” he said.
(The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, lists only four instances of voter fraud in Wyoming since 2000, all of which were the result of people with criminal convictions attempting to vote.)
The concerns Haroldson's constituents raised led him to write and sponsor the current measure, he said, which some in the state have unsuccessfully pushed for over the years.
Under the bill, a hand recount would be automatically triggered if the difference between the winner in a race who has the least number of votes and the loser who has the highest number of votes is less than 1% or 2%, depending on the circumstances.
The policy would also give the opportunity for county clerks and the secretary of state to initiate hand count audits, and it would allow for at least 25 Wyomingites to file an affidavit requesting an audit, too. Those voters would then be on the hook to pay either a $1,000 deposit for a machine-tabulated audit or $5,000 for a hand count audit.
If the recount turned up any discrepancy between the recount results and the preliminary election results, a county canvassing board would then determine the official result of the election.
“I believe this is another of the many, many bills that addresses a problem that does not exist,” said Gail Symons to the Appropriations Committee. She leads the nonprofit group Civics307 and ran unsuccessfully for House District 30 in the August primary election. “I believe it is inherently flawed: flawed in the assumption of a problem, flawed in presenting a solution that actually creates a problem, flawed in further undermining belief in election integrity, which I do not believe actually occurs.”
Some county clerks in the state previously told Wyoming Public Radio that humans counting ballots instead of machines can actually lead to more errors, not less.
“If you look at ballots, people are creative,” said Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese in October. “They don't follow instructions. So now, if you get a ballot that is partially filled in and the machine knows what to read … are [we] then supposed to be subjective as humans and decide, was that a vote, or was that not?”
Symons concurred with that sentiment at the Jan. 27 committee hearing in the Capitol.
“The recount requirement, in my mind, is the equivalent of having your physician's diagnosis fact-checked by a witch doctor,” she said.
The hand count audits bill passed a third reading in the House on Jan. 30. It heads to the Senate next.
HB 131 - Ballot drop boxes-prohibition
The Wyoming House is also weighing an election measure that would ban the use of ballot drop boxes in the state.
HB 131’s supporters said it’s about ensuring election integrity and protecting ballots’ chain of custody as they move from the voters who fill them in to the hands of duly elected officials.
“I remain convinced that the use of unstaffed and unattended ballot dropboxes is not secure or the best means for our state [to conduct elections],” Gray testified to the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee on Jan. 22.
But this bill, too, received pushback from those who said it undermines trust in the election process by casting doubt on the legitimacy of a long-trusted ballot collection method.
Marrisa Carpio with the Equality State Policy Center testified after Gray that her organization filed open records requests with the secretary of state’s office for election complaints submitted in the last three years.
“While there are many complaints dealing with political campaign violations like dark money or improperly marked mailers, not a single complaint was made regarding Wyoming's ballot dropboxes,” said Carpio.
A representative for county clerks in Wyoming also testified, refuting the notion that the use of drop boxes only became widespread in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Since at least the 1990s, from anecdotal evidence, counties have utilized those [drop boxes] to a certain degree to accept absentee ballots,” said Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin, the president of the County Clerks’ Association. “So at least 30 years, three decades’ worth.”
Some counties that use ballot drop boxes have surveillance cameras trained on the receptacles 24 hours a day. Converse County Clerk Karen Rimmer told WPR she checks footage every day and maintains detailed chain of custody logs for ballots placed into the box.
Gray urged all county clerks to discontinue the use of ballot drop boxes last year, but the rule change was opposed by the County Clerks’ Association and eventually blocked by Gov. Mark Gordon.
The bill passed a third reading in the House on Jan. 30. It now moves down the hall to the Senate for consideration.
Other election bills
The House has already passed a few election-related policies, including HB 156, requiring proof of 30-day residency to vote in Wyoming elections, and HB 157, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
HB 106, which would repeal student ID cards as an acceptable form of identification for in-person voting, is up for House debate and amendments on Jan. 30 on the bill’s third reading.
HB 206 would require photograph IDs for voting and repeal Medicaid and Medicare insurance cards as forms of acceptable identification. It’s up for its first floor vote Jan. 30.
HB 165 would bar the state from conducting elections by ranked-choice voting. It’s up for public comment and discussion in the House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 30.
HB 173 would require Independent candidates to swear, as part of their petition for nomination to run for office, that they're an unaffiliated voter and not a member of a political party. The bill comes on the heels of a complaint against the state made by an Independent who lost in the primary election in August and who was subsequently prohibited from running again in the general election by the state’s “sore loser” law.
HB 178 would expand the timing for when an employee can take time off without loss of pay to vote, to include the early voting period. It’s up for its first House floor vote and discussion on Jan. 30.
HB 182 would require that “residence” for voting purposes does not mean a secondary or commercial address. This bill hasn't seen any action since being introduced.
HB 215 would prohibit the use of electronic voting equipment and require paper ballots for elections. Wyoming currently uses paper ballots and machine tabulators. This bill is awaiting scheduling of a hearing in the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.
HB 217 would require hand counts in post-election ballot audits. These are currently counted by machines. The bill has a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 30.
HB 249 would require runoff elections for statewide and federal races where no candidate receives more than 50% of votes cast. The bill awaits scheduling of a hearing in the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.
HB 278 would allow members of the public to be present when voting machines are accuracy tested ahead of elections. Currently, representatives from political parties and independent candidates may attend these tests. The bill awaits a hearing in the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.
SF 190 would also require paper ballots to be the default voting method. It’s waiting for a hearing in the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.
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.