On Aug. 15, a panel of Wyoming lawmakers gave the go-ahead for three bills reconstructing the way the state runs its elections to be introduced to the legislative budget session next year.
The approval by the interim Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee came after the body voted on May 8 to study 10 election measures that had previously met their demise during the 2025 general session.
The committee will meet again in November and to discuss seven other election-related bills.
Arguments for and against the draft bills fell along similar lines as during the May committee meeting.
Some statewide and local officials said that by and large, the state’s elections are safe, and voter fraud is rare.
“The thing that Wyoming gets right more than anything in the whole country is our elections,” said Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander). “If this were about gun rights, and we were trying to tweak people’s gun rights by saying, ‘You can only buy a gun on Saturday,’ or ‘You have to show this ID to buy a gun,’ we’d all be freaking out. We don’t have a problem. These are unnecessary. This is a waste of time.”
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.
Proponents of the election measures said that those who voted them into office expressed skepticism about elections, and that their skepticism deserves to be addressed. Doubts about election integrity have increased following false claims that the 2020 general election was stolen from Pres. Donald Trump, according to a 2023 survey by Morning Consult.
“I would like to say that election integrity is a national priority from the president on down,” said state GOP Chairman Bryan Miller. “It is a priority of voters across the nation and very much so here in Wyoming. National politics have driven a big distrust in the election system, and that distrust is very prevalent in Wyoming at the moment. Bottom line, the perception is the reality here in Wyoming and elsewhere.”
On Aug. 18, Trump posted on Truth Social that his attorneys are drafting an executive order to end mail-in voting and ban voting machines, the latter of which is one of the election bills that died during the last session. Legal experts have said Trump doesn’t have the ability to order states to make those changes. On the same day, Secretary of State Chuck Gray put out a press release backing Trump’s initiatives.
“Why pass laws to prevent problems from happening?” Miller continued. “It's simple. Because the public demands it.”
Gray, a founding member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, echoed Miller at the committee meeting in Casper.
“Working people support election integrity,” said Gray. “So I'd really push back on the notion that there's a lack of support for these measures out there.”
In a National Public Affairs poll of 497 likely general election voters in Wyoming conducted for the state Freedom Caucus ahead of the November election, 10% of respondents listed “Ensuring election integrity” as their top issue.
The greenlit legislation would ban the use of ballot drop boxes, clarify the definition of “qualified elector” in state statute and require counties to use pen and paper as their default method of marking ballots in elections. That practice is already the norm in every county but Laramie County.
Sublette County Clerk Mary Langford read an email to the committee that she received from Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee about the effect of the pen and paper draft bill on her constituents. Currently, the county uses voting machines with touch screens to record votes.
“This would completely upend Laramie County's elections, a recipe for disaster for Wyoming's largest county that could impact elections across the state,” Langford read. “Laramie County would have to completely change its operational plans. The county would have to acquire additional voting equipment, have equipment installed and tested by the vendor well in advance of performing the required logic and accuracy tests.”
The committee also moved forward a bill that would ban ballot harvesting, which is the practice of collecting absentee ballots from voters and delivering them to polling places or election offices.
Lawmakers will meet to consider seven other election bills on Nov. 3 in Cheyenne, including those expanding the use of hand counting ballots and requiring tests of voting machines to be open to the public.
The “qualified elector” bill would clarify Wyoming’s new voter registration law passed in 2025. It requires proof of state residency and U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
Bills received by the House or Senate will need two thirds of the chamber in question to vote in favor of introduction in the upcoming budget session.
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.
