Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock resigned from office Thursday, one day after she was arrested and charged with two felonies related to her conduct during and after the 2024 general election.
Hadlock faces one count of violating the election code as an official and one count of falsifying election documents. Each carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
She was set to stand trial Monday in a separate case to determine whether she should be removed from office for acts of misconduct and malfeasance, which included allegations that she filed a false post-election audit and defied a legislative subpoena.
Ryan Semerad, Hadlock’s attorney, said a hearing was scheduled late Thursday to determine whether Monday’s trial would proceed. As of Friday morning, the trial was postponed pending the filing of a dismissal, which is expected next week, according to a court’s media coordinator for the case.
“I am declining to comment on Clerk Hadlock’s resignation,” Semerad told WyoFile. “I look forward to fighting back against the criminal charges filed against her.”
On the night of the 2024 general election, Hadlock caused an initial ballot miscount in her county’s results after using the wrong ballots. That led to a dramatic undercount in the vote for Speaker of the House Chip Neiman. A hand count ultimately sorted out the results, as did a second post-election audit. However, the charges stem from an initial audit that Hadlock submitted, indicating there were no issues with the votes. In reality, there were 21 errors in that sample batch of 75 ballots.
“The investigation into the 2024 Weston County General Election reveals that County Clerk Becky Hadlock … knowingly filed a false post-election audit,” according to an affidavit of probable cause signed by a state investigator in the criminal case. Investigators say two people, including a deputy clerk, said they heard Hadlock refer to such mandatory audits as “stupid.”
The post-election audit was also one reason lawmakers subpoenaed Hadlock to appear at a legislative hearing last year. After she failed to do so, the Natrona County District Attorney’s office charged her with a misdemeanor in a case separate from the one scheduled to go to trial Monday. She has pleaded not guilty in that matter.
In January, Gov. Mark Gordon directed the Wyoming Attorney General’s office to seek Hadlock’s removal from office following a verified complaint from Weston County voters. Amy Edmonds, Gordon’s spokesperson, declined to comment Thursday following Hadlock’s resignation.
Weston County commissioners will meet Tuesday to accept Hadlock’s resignation and begin the process of filling the vacant seat, which is typically decided by voters.
“It’s just a bummer. It really is,” Commission Chairman Nathan Todd told WyoFile when asked what the mood was like in Newcastle.
“What’s upsetting is, I don’t ever think anything was done maliciously, and, you know, I could be wrong,” Todd said. “People make mistakes, and unfortunately, sometimes it’s hard for people to own up to them. And if that’s all this was, I guess that’s all it is.”
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