CHEYENNE — There wasn’t much drama or any election shenanigans reported about last week’s primary during Wednesday’s meeting of the Wyoming State Canvassing Board, but that didn’t stop Secretary of State Chuck Gray from using the platform to say the Cowboy State’s elections still aren’t secure enough.
The purpose of the biennial meetings of the Canvassing Board is to certify the results of each election held in Wyoming.
There were no allegations of voter fraud or serious irregularities reported by C.J. Young, state elections director, during his report to the board made up by Gov. Mark Gordon, Gray, State Auditor Kristi Racines and State Treasurer Curt Meier, which voted unanimously to certify the state’s abstract election results.
After receiving Young’s report, Gray, who has maintained that Wyoming’s elections aren’t secure enough since taking office, urged consideration for more changes to Wyoming’s election rules.
This comes while a campaign is mounting to do all elections by hand count in Wyoming out of fears of potential fraud caused by the use of machines.
Significant changes were already made in 2023 when a new law passed, with Gray’s vocal support, prohibiting people from changing their party affiliation after the candidate filing period opens. The purpose of this law was to stop a process known as “crossover voting,” when people change party affiliation to impact another party’s primary election.
Another law was also passed that year shortening the early and absentee voting period.
Gray and Young referred to these laws as positives for voter integrity and the crossover law a possible reason for the lower-than-normal turnout in last week’s election. Gray also blamed the media for the low turnout.
Other Policies
Marissa Carpio, policy director for the Equality State Policy Center, said calling these new laws a positive for elections is “disingenuous.”
“These measures were voter suppression tactics and the extremely low voter turnout in the primary election confirms that,” she said.
Only 27% of the state’s eligible voting population turned out to vote.
Young noted that voter turnout was lower than usual but not historically so. Typically, primary elections in Wyoming during presidential years have a lower turnout than years with gubernatorial races, which run on opposite election cycles.
As he has proposed before, Gray wants required identification to prove state residency and U.S. citizenship when people register to vote.
“Chief among the institutions being threatened by the endless wave of illegal immigration are our elections,” Gray said.
Gordon vetoed Gray’s proposed rules this earlier this year. These requirements to vote in Wyoming elections are already indirectly screened through other forms of identification required to vote.
Gray also wants durational voter residency requirements, which was proposed in a legislative bill earlier this year that died during the session.
He also still opposes ballot drop boxes, which he vowed during his 2022 campaign to eliminate statewide. Although Gray issued an order rescinding them earlier this summer, a number of county clerks ignored the order.
“I do think we stopped the spread of them," Gray said.
Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming, said about seven counties still used ballot boxes in this year’s primary. The clerks association publicly disagreed with Gray on the issue.
But Gray still gave Ervin multiple shoutouts throughout the meeting and said he was a major asset in getting his voter ID legislation passed in 2021.
“We don’t agree all the time, but we agree to disagree and talk respectfully and always work together to advance our state,” Gray said.
Gordon commended Gray for his efforts during the election.
“It’s nice that Wyoming can be confident, and I think you’ve brought a lot to that,” Gordon said.
Minor Issues
There were very few issues reported on Election Day in Wyoming. Despite Gray making numerous requests for people to speak during the public comment period, only three people spoke to the board Wednesday.
Young said his staff did identify some issues prior to the election.
He brought up the situation that happened in Laramie County and other counties, where election machines were tested in a manner not specifically in accordance with law.
This issue ended up being resolved with new tests performed, but on Tuesday, the Wyoming Republican Party announced a resolution to censure Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee for the way she handled her county’s test, which will be brought forward at the party’s meeting next weekend.
Cheyenne resident Susan Graham said she felt some of the logic and accuracy tests performed in her county weren’t legitimate because the tests were administered by ES&S, the company that owns the equipment being tested. Graham provided no examples of any inaccuracies.
“From where I stand, it looks fishy,” she said.
Cheyenne resident Richard Garrett helped count absentee ballots and said he had a completely different experience and gained confidence by the security of the election system and the extensive processes taken to count these ballots.
"It was a very difficult process and made me not want to send an absentee ballot in again," he said of the effort it took to count the ballots.
Young also said questions were raised about thumb drives, ballot certification equipment and machines not being updated with the most up-to-date antivirus software, but all of these issues were promptly addressed by ES&S, the vendor for all Wyoming voting machines.
“Our office is happy to provide anyone with these concerns the information which was provided to us,” Young said.
There was also a jammed tabulator in Sweetwater County on Election Day, resulting in three double-counted ballots. These ballots were then counted on a different machine and the correct result totals were updated.
In Lincoln County, an election judge removed a media stick too early as the machine was tabulating. Once again, the ballots on this stick were counted on another machine.
“These moments highlight that whenever issues arise, we’re committed to addressing them,” Young said.
Ervin pointed out that no election is flawless and that small mistakes are bound to happen when counting hundreds of thousands of ballots across 23 counties.
“I know there’s room for improvement and we’ll strive to continue to make that,” he said.
Post-election audits performed around the state also resulted in no issues.
Write-In Candidates Certified
The board also reviewed and certified three successful write-in Democratic campaigns for the state Legislature.
To qualify as a write-in candidate, a person must receive at least 25 votes. They also must accept the nomination and fill out all necessary paperwork and pay the normal filing fees associated with running for office.
The candidates who qualified were Larry Alwin for House District 28 in central Wyoming, Martha Wright for House District 29 in Sheridan and Carmen Whitehead for House District 60 in Green River. These candidates must be contacted within 48 hours, after which they have five days to file.
There was one mandatory recount performed in House District 62 in Converse and Natrona counties for the race between Edis Allen and Kevin Campbell, which Campbell won by 17 votes. Under Wyoming law, any race that comes within a 1% margin qualifies for an automatic recount. This recount returned the same result.
Gordon mentioned how Randall Luthi was elected to the Legislature in 1994 after his race ended in a tie. To break that tie, pingpong balls were drawn out of former Gov. Mike Sullivan’s cowboy hat.
“That led to my name ‘Landslide Luthi,’” Luthi remarked.
The board also certified the Wyoming race for U.S. Senate between Republican Sen. John Barrasso and Democrat Scott Morrow, and the U.S. House race between U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and Democrat Kyle Cameron for the general election.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
