Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Secretary Gray did not respond to WPR's interview request by press time. This was an error, and the story has been updated with quotations from Gray.
Wyoming Republicans have mixed feelings about Gov. Mark Gordon’s decision not to seek the removal of a county clerk over irregularities in last year's election.
That’s after Gordon announced on May 23 he won’t pass off his investigation of Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock to the state attorney general or seek her removal from office.
This comes after Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s office completed its own investigation and released a report calling for Hadlock’s removal on March 10.
“He's basically taken away Weston County and the voter’s ability to be able to get to the bottom of it, and find out what we need to do to do things differently in order to make sure people aren't disenfranchised,” Wyoming Freedom Caucus member and Speaker of the House Rep. Chip Neiman (R-Hulett) said in a phone interview with Wyoming Public Radio.
But not everyone in Weston County feels the same.
“In this case, the system worked, and it worked because the errors were caught,” said Doug Jorrey, a retiree in Newcastle and Republican who served on Hadlock’s county canvassing board. He told WPR the uproar over Hadlock’s actions is an example of the election system catching errors before the state finalized them.
In the Nov. 5 general election, Hadlock allegedly distributed incorrect ballots for three races to local polling centers, which led to hand recounts.
Then, in December, nine qualified electors and local Republican Party officials in Weston County submitted a verified complaint to the governor seeking Hadlock’s removal for misconduct and malfeasance in office.
There were four specific actions of Hadlock’s outlined in the complaint, including mishandling election ballots by ordering and using multiple ballot versions in the general election.
One of those initially botched races was Neiman’s. He was running unopposed. At first, it appeared Neiman got 166 votes while 1,289 didn’t fill in that part of the ballot. After a recount, Neiman received 1,269 votes.
“ My race was uncontested,” he said. “That's the only reason in my mind that this was caught. Because it was so obvious, it just didn't make any sense. I got a phone call from a gentleman in Johnson County at 2 a.m. saying, ‘Chip, what did you do to make all the voters in Weston County mad?’”
The state Freedom Caucus shared a post on Facebook on May 30 with a caption that reads, “We are disappointed (though not surprised) that Governor Gordon has chosen to ignore the very serious issues with the Weston County Clerk's handling of the 2024 general election. The Governor's incessant fence-sitting has got to stop.”
Neiman said he’s worried similar errors could be happening across the state, and he’s disappointed the governor didn’t want to pursue the matter further.
He added that Gordon’s inability to find “misconduct or malfeasance” in Hadlock’s methods doesn’t sit well with him as a reason not to continue an investigation.
“What does that have to do with anything, with the need to make sure that this doesn't ever happen again to anybody else in their elections?” he said. “Whether or not she had malicious intent, that doesn't do anything for me. It's the fact that we've got major problems that we need to take care of so people aren't disenfranchised.”
Hadlock didn’t respond to an interview request from WPR by press time. A spokesperson for Gordon declined to comment on the matter and directed WPR to his letter detailing his decision.
In a statement emailed to WPR on May 30, Gray wrote, “I remain troubled by Mark Gordon’s lies by omission in refusing to consider the false post-election audit that was submitted to our office despite the fact that our investigation highlighted this issue. These actions by Mark Gordon are deeply political and are not focused on getting to the truth of the matter.“
He continued: “The system worked in this situation because there was such a large anomaly in the results and because we insisted on the county canvassing board examining the ballots. Without the anomaly, we would have never known there was an issue because the post election audit was submitted falsely.“
Jorrey said he agrees Hadlock “screwed up,” but that he thinks the issue has become politicized by members of the Weston County GOP and the state party.
“ There appears to be a number of people in the county Republican committee that essentially have got it out for Becky,” he said.
Before the August primary election, Jorrey said he was approached by someone in Weston County who gave him a list of local Republican candidates to vote for. He said the list did not include Hadlock for county clerk.
“ I thought that was goofy and just threw the paper away,” he said. “I wish I had it now. For the clerk [position], it was not Becky, it was some other lady who I don't even know. Becky won that election, and it seems since then, the Republican Party … are out to get Becky. Somebody's friend didn't get elected, so they're out after her.”
Jorrey conceded he couldn’t prove that anecdote is true, but said the bottom line is that claims that Hadlock broke the law during the election episode are incorrect.
“ The truth is the canvassing board has a purpose, and no election is final until the canvassing board signs off on the election. So all of this stuff that says something illegal was done is not true. The election is not certified by the clerk. It's certified by the election board. And no matter what numbers she initially gives the secretary of state, that really doesn't count.”
In his email to WPR, Gray pointed out that Jorrey was appointed to the county canvassing board by Hadlock herself.
“It is another problem in the system that a clerk can appoint their own friends or associates to the very board that is supposed to be a check on the clerks,” he said.
Both Gordon and Neiman have said voters can decide Hadlock’s fate in the next election.
But Neiman hopes that in the meantime, the interim Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee will take up the matter.
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.
