Wyoming’s primary election is today, and county clerks around the state have been preparing for months. Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger caught up with Malcolm Ervin, Platte County’s clerk, for some last-minute reminders and what to expect on election night.
Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity
Jordan Uplinger: From your perspective, what are you seeing so far for turnout?
Malcolm Ervin: We're a little bit ahead of 2022. Obviously down from 2024, which was a presidential cycle, and that's to be expected. I expect roughly 15% of our votes will be cast by absentee in Platte County.
JU: I understand that voters frequently call your office. What kind of issues are they talking about? Are the issues similar to a general election or more unique to primary elections?
ME: They're more unique to primary elections. You'll always have the similar questions of, "What day is it? Where's my polling place?" Things like that.
Specific to a primary right now is the matter of party affiliation. A lot of folks just ask about declaring a party and affiliating. The question I wish they would ask when they do that is: What races are on their ballot? What candidates? Because we have folks that will actually switch from a major party to an unaffiliated status, and if they don't live in a municipality during the primary, there's nothing to vote on.
JU: Lawmakers made several changes to the voting requirements, including requiring proof of citizenship and a 30-day residency in Wyoming to register to vote. Are voters aware of these more recent changes? Have those changes caused any implementation issues?
ME: Thankfully, so far it hasn't had an administrative impact, but where we'll see it is on Election Day. Folks will still have the opportunity for a provisional ballot, and of course they have to provide sufficient proof by the end of the business day the day following the election. Most registrants use a Wyoming credential, be it an ID or driver's license. Thankfully, the administrative burden is smaller because of that.
Election Day is where we'll see it, so that'll be a really good question as a follow-up from Election Day: What things we need to tweak in the law or work on to make it more smooth and more clear? So far, it's going just fine, but on Election Day, there's bound to be something that pops up that we didn't expect.
JU: Something that I think you guys are expecting on Election Day is the change to the hand count audit of ballots, and then comparing those results to what machine tabulators come up with. What's the hand count audit going to look like?
ME: What will happen is, at the county canvass, the board will select a piece or multiple pieces of equipment that total roughly five percent of the ballots cast on Election Day, and then we'll audit the ballots that ran through that machine on Election Day. We'll have to audit a statewide race, a federal race – those two are selected by the secretary of state's office – and then every legislative race that appears on the ballot [in that county].
Then canvassing boards have the ability to select additional races. The idea is, should something pop up and look odd, or if we need further clarification, we can add to the audit. But I am excited about the opportunity that we get to show that the equipment is performing as it's supposed to.
JU: With this process, do you expect there to be any delays, or do you have confidence that county clerks and staff are properly trained on this and it won't be a long, ongoing count?
ME: I do not anticipate it to be long and drawn out because we believe the nine-day period is sufficient for the number of ballots and the number of races to be audited.
I think that we will learn a lot, and I do expect there to be some discrepancies between the initial audit and the equipment number. The reason I say that is that our colleagues in Utah have experienced this for years now, that the hand count generally is not spot on after the first attempt. Sometimes it is, but in their experience, every time they have not balanced, it's been due to some sort of human error. So I do expect there to be some discrepancy, and I don't believe it will be the equipment. But the audit will prove that out.
Just to be clear – and I was remiss in not saying this – but this will be one of three audits that we perform post-election to confirm the veracity of the results.
JU: Do you feel that you have the staff necessary to carry this out as well?
Ervin: I hope so, yes. Really, the issue is ensuring equal party representation. The law requires that we have no more than two members of a single political affiliation on a counting board. If you have a team of four where, let's say, only two can be Republicans, and then the other two on that board have to be either from the Democratic Party or a minor party or unaffiliated. I think we'll be fine in getting sufficient Republican representation. I think it might be difficult for us to get Democratic or minor party participation. That's going to be the driver of how many teams we can utilize to perform this audit.
There really is a call out there to any folks that are affiliated with the Democratic Party, a minor party or unaffiliated. If you're interested in helping, we're going to need it. Make sure your clerk's office is aware that you're willing to help, because as I said, I think we'll have really good representation on the Republican side. Number one, we just have numbers. And number two, there's been more interest on the Republican side for some sort of hand audit. But making sure those boards have equal representation politically, which is a requirement under the law, that's where we're gonna have some issues.
JU: Speaking of election night, when should voters expect to see the final results?
ME: Polls close at 7 p.m. There's a closing procedure after that, and it really depends on the size of your polling place, number of voters, how long that takes, etc. Some of your smaller counties, like Platte, will have results posted – my anticipation would be roughly at 8:30. Now that I say that, something will pop up.
Some of the larger counties, it's going to take time to close those systems down and get them uploaded. The secretary of state rules require that we provide preliminary results to them by 10:00 p.m. on election night. I would estimate that by 10:00 p.m., you have a very clear picture of what the results are statewide.
